"Go 9 71 I. 2 6 9 h
angtry
1834-1906
History of the Church in Eastern Canada and Newfound land
HISTORY OF
THE CHUKCH IN EASTERN CANADA AND NEWFOUNDLAND.
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2010 with funding from
Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center
http://www.archive.org/details/historyofchurchiOOIang
Colonial Cfjurcfj histories.
HISTOEY
OF THE
CHUKCH IN EASTEKN CANADA
AND NEWFOUNDLAND.
BY
EEV. J. LANGTRY, M.A., D.C.L.,
RECTOR OF S. LUKE'S, TORONTO, A^D PROLOCUTOR OF THE PROVINCIAL SYNOD OF CANADA.
WITH MAP.
PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE TRACT COMMITTEE.
SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE.
LONDON : NORTHUMBERLAND AVENUE, W.C. ;
43, queen victoria street, e.c ;
Brighton: 135, north street.
New York: SOCIETY'S AGENTS.
1892.
BRITISH NORTH AMERICA.
Colonial ffiinircij Histories.
HISTOBY
OF THE
CHUECH IN EASTERN CANADA
AND NEWFOUNDLAND.
BY
REV. J. LANGTRT, M.A., D.C.L.,
RECTOR OF S. LUKE'S, TORONTO, AND PROLOCUTOR OF THE PROVINCIAL SYNOD OF CANADA.
WITH MAP.
PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE TRACT COMMITTEE.
SOCIETY FOE PEOMOTTNG CHEISTIAN KNOWLEDGE.
LONDON : NORTHUMBERLAND AVENUE, W.C. ;
43, queen victoria street, e.c. ;
Brighton : 135, north street.
New York: SOCIETY'S AGENTS.
1892.
Richard Clay & Sons, Limited, London & Bungay.
PREFACE.
The writer of this volume has felt himself under very hampering constraint in the attempt to produce a History of the ten Eastern Dioceses of Canada, in a volume not exceeding 256 pages. Fluency of style and freedom of treatment have necessarily been excluded. The attractive feature of biographical illustration had, in the main, to be passed by, and the bare narrative of events adhered to. This of course deprives the volume of that heroic interest which the history of the pioneer days of the Church's life in Canada ought to possess. Enough, how- ever, has perhaps been said to awaken interest in the subject, and to direct the attention of those who have more leisure and more ability for such writing, to fields where abundant material may be found. And yet the writer has been made painfully aware of the little regard with which the records of these toilsome years have generally been treated. Most of the Dioceses have no record of their past history, except such as may be painfully gathered from Bishops' Charges, Synod and Church Society Reports. The only record the writer has been able to find of many of the noble men who have toiled in the hard places of the field, is their surviving work. Not a scrap written of which any trace could be found. This speaks well for the men who have thought so humbly of themselves and their doings ; but it has inflicted great loss upon the Church. Nothing, the writer is persuaded, would more stimulate
men to heroic action in the present time, than the simple record of the self-denials and toils of many of those who first planted the Cross in these western wilds.
One benefit that may be hoped for, from this imperfect sketch of our history, is the recovery of much that has been lost, and the enlargement and correction of not a few of the imperfect records which this volume contains.
The writer wishes to express his special obligation to his Lordship the Bishop of Newfoundland, to the Rev. W. Pilot, B.D., and the Rev. W. Hall of New- foundland, for the ready and abundant help which they have supplied. He is also under special obliga- tion to the Yen. Archdeacon Roe of Quebec, who kindly and carefully reviewed the history of Quebec.
The Bev. Dr. Partridge of Halifax, Dr. Alexander of Fredericton, Dr. Hodgins and Dr. Scadding of Toronto, have supplied him with many valuable books and documents. The narratives of their respective Dioceses, written for the jubilee of Bishop Strachan's consecration, by the Rev. Canon Paterson (of Huron), the Rev. A. Spencer (of Ontario), the Rev. Canon Read (of Niagara), and the Right Reverend Dr. Sullivan (Bishop of Algoma), and Dr. J. G. Hodgins of Toronto, have been freely used. The life of Bishop Stewart, by the S. P. C. K. ; of Bishop Mountain, by his son ; of Bishop Strachan by Bishop Bethune ; of the Three Bishops, by Fennings Taylor ; of Bishop Feild, by Mr. Tucker ; and the works written by the Rev. D. Aikins, Mr. H. Lees, and the Rev. Ernest Hawkins, together with Mr. A. "W. Eaton's book just published, have been care- fully studied and eviscerated. To all these gentlemen, and many others not named, the writer acknowledges his great obligations.
J. L.
CONTENTS.
CHAP. PAGE
I. INTRODUCTION ... ... ... ... 9
II. THE FOUNDING OF THE FIRST COLONIAL BIS- HOPRIC ... ... ... ... 25
III. THE DIOCESE OF QUEBEC ... ... ... 39
IV. NEWFOUNDLAND... ... ... ... 71
V. THE DIOCESE OF TORONTO ... ... 117
VI. THE DIOCESE OF FREDERICTON ... ... 156
VII. THE DIOCESE OF MONTREAL ... ... 177
VIII. THE DIOCESE OF HURON ... ... ... 201
IX. THE DIOCESE OF ONTARIO ... ... 218
X. ALGOMA ... ... ... ... 236
XI. DIOCESE OF NIAGARA ... ... ... 245
HISTORY OF
THE CHUECH IN EASTERN CANADA AND NEWFOUNDLAND.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION.
As the result of the capture of Quebec by General Wolfe, France ceded to England, at the Treaty of Paris. 1763. the whole of North America lying to the north of the Alleghany Mountains. The boundary in the west between the British possessions thus gained, and the province of Louisiana ceded by the same treaty to Spain, was never determined, and nobody at that time thought it worth determining. The territory was regarded as an impenetrable wilder- ness,' of no use, except as a covert for fur-bearing animals. Thirteen years later, by the revolution of the thirteen Atlantic States, England lost the whole territory lying ~to~the west of the provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec, and to the south of the St. Lawrence, Lakes Ontario and Erie, and all the territory west of the Detroit River, lying to the south of the 45th parallel of latitude.
The country that was left to England was not regarded by either side as being of any great value.
10 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN
Subsequent events have, however, proved how utterly- mistaken the men of that time were, both as to the extent and importance of the country. It is not easy for Englishmen, or indeed for citizens of the United States, as is being constantly manifested, to take in the extent and productiveness of this great land known as British North America. It is almost speaking in an unknown tongue to tell the inhabitants of a sea-girt isle of a few hundred miles in extent that there is a railway running almost in a straight line due west from one ocean to the other, 3668 miles in length, wholly within British territory ; and that to the north and south of that line there lies a territory varying from 200 to 800 miles in depth of as fertile and productive land as is to be found anywhere under the sun. The general impression about the country in Europe is that, however great it may be in extent, it is yet a land of perpetual ice and snow, in which civilized men will always find it difficult to live. The absurdity of this notion will be apparent at once, if we recall the fact that almost the whole of this land lies in a latitude south of that of Edinburgh, while the latitude of Amherstburgh, the most southerly Canadian town, is almost identical with that of Rome. The latitude of Toronto is somewhat south of that of Florence ; while Winnipeg is in the same latitude as Paris. It is true that the heat in summer and the cold in winter are very much greater in America than in the same latitudes in Europe, but the mean temperature is almost the same ; and those who have had experience of the climate of England and of Canada, will almost without exception give the preference to Canada, as the extremes of heat and cold in a bright dry climate are more endurable than the winter rains and chilly east winds of England.
The loss of the United States was for a long time regarded as being practically the loss of the British
EASTERN CANADA AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 11
possessions in North America. The land was looked upon as pretty well useless for purposes of settlement, and so in after years British statesmen gave away a territory as large as all Europe, west of Russia, without any compensation or constraint, in mere contempt for what they regarded as a worthless country. This feeling so widespread at first has lasted down to our own time, and accounts in no small measure for the fact, that British capital and British subjects flow with an ever-increasing volume into the United States, and develop the resources of that alien land, while the far more productive soil, richer mineral resources, and more extensive timber lands of Canada, have been left unreclaimed for lack of money and men to develope them.
After the conquest of Canada, this feeling was so universal that no English settlements of any importance were effected till after the end of the revolutionary war. Then large numbers of those who had settled in the thirteen colonies, and who remained loyal to the British Crown during that struggle, emigrated to Nova Scotia and Canada. Bands of these United Empire Loyalists, as they have been called, moved from the different States into the British territory lying nearest to them ; and thus con- siderable TJ. E. settlements were formed in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and in Upper and Lower Canada. Perhaps the largest settlements were formed in the Eastern Provinces, as they were accessible by sea, while Canadian lands could only be reached by long journeys through the almost roadless forests.
It has been maintained in modern times, that these self-expatriated heroes acted under altogether mis- taken notions of their duty, and that their action has been stripped of all its high significance and nobility by the indefensible motives which dictated it.
It is, however, certain that they did not act in
12 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN
obedience to any mere sentiment. They were inspired no doubt with enthusiastic loyalty to the Crown and realm of England ; and for that loyalty, as the violence of the Revolution increased, they were proscribed and banished, their property confiscated, and in some cases even their lives endangered. They had no choice but to emigrate, or violate their con- science and their oath; and so vast multitudes of men, women, and children abandoned all their worldly goods, possessions and interests, and set out to carve out for themselves a new home in this unknown land. We would therefore only say in answer to this shallow and disloyal philosophizing, that even if they may have been mistaken in their convictions, they yet acted in obedience to noble and self-sacrificing sentiments, and nothing can ever rob their conduct of its heroism and glory. No land under the sun has had a nobler race of progenitors than our own Canadian realm. No race ever began with a set of men of higher principles, or of more inflexible adherence to right- eousness and truth.
No class perhaps fared so badly in the Revolution as the clergy of the Church. That they were the upholders on this continent of an Institution that in England was part and parcel of the State, was of itself sufficient to make them the objects of suspicion ; but it was also true that in the beginning of the conflict, they almost, without exception, espoused the British cause. In most cases they held on to their parishes as long as they were permitted, or found it at all safe to do so. Their sufferings were in many cases most severe. They were mobbed, whipped, shot at, imprisoned, fined, and banished. Their pro- perty was confiscated or wantonly destroyed ; their services disturbed, their altars defiled, their churches wrecked, and their writings burned ; some of them died of poverty and exposure. The Rev. Dr. Carver writes
EASTERN CANADA AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 13
to the Society from Halifax, that he and several other clergymen had been obliged to leave Boston at a moment's -warning, with the loss of all their property. The Rev. Dr._Byles came to Halifax with five mother- less children, and for a time was deprived of all means of support. "The Rev. Jacob Bailey writes that for three years past he had undergone the most severe and cruel treatment. He was seized by the Committee, and after being treated with the utmost abuse, was ordered to appear before the General Court at a distance of 180 miles, in the midst of winter. On his way to preach and baptize, he was [ assaulted by a violent armed mob, who stripped him naked in search of papers. He was then confined a close prisoner to his house for many weeks. . . At last he escaped in the night, and wandered about Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts, and was perse- cuted by the Sheriff for not taking the oath of abjuration ; and when at last he and his family were able to escape to Halifax, they were destitute of money, and had not clothing enough to cover them." And so the story goes on. (The Rev. A. W. Eaton, just published.)
NOVA SCOTIA.
The province of Nova Scotia was formally ceded to the British Crown by France in the year 1713., The inhabitants were all French Roman Catholics for a long time after the cession. Gradually, however, a few English residents settled at Annapolis Royal, where a military chaplain was occasionally stationed ; but there was no regular mission of the Church of England till 1749. In that year the EDglish Govern- ment determined to found six townships in Nova Scotia for English settlers, and a letter was addressed
14 HISTORY OP THE CHURCH IN
by the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Planta- tions to the S. P. Gr., notifying them of his Majesty's intentions to set apart a spot for the erection of a church in each of the proposed townships ; and further, that 400 acres of land adjacent thereto would be granted in perpetuity to a minister and his successors, and 200 acres in like manner to a school- master. They were further notified that each clergyman sent out with the persons who were to form the first settlement should receive a personal grant of 200 acres for himself and his heirs; and each school-master 100 acres, and 30 acres additional for every person of which his family should consist ; and further, that they should be subsisted during their passage, and for twelve months after their arrival, and furnished with arms and material for husbandry, building their houses, &c, in a like manner as the other settlers. They also inform the Society that all the inhabitants (except the garrison at Annapolis), amounting to 20,000, are French Roman Catholics, and they suggest that some of the ministers and school-masters be able to speak French, with a view to propagating the Protestant religion among the French settlers and their children.1
This was an exceedingly liberal offer from the Crown. The Society at once resolved to send six clergymen, and as many school-masters, as soon as the
1 In 1755, the Acadians, that is the French settlers in the country, because of their persistent disloyalty, were deported from the country and distributed among the English plantations. A proclamation was issued offering their lands to New England settlers. Many people of good family and means accepted the invitation. These were almost without exception Congrega- tionalists ; most of them, or their descendants, turned Baptists — the explanation of the large Baptist population of to-day.
The proclamation with regard to the depopulated lands was circulated in Germany and Switzerland. Its liberal offers to settlers accounts for the large German immigration of this time.
EASTERN CANADA AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 15
settlements were formed ; and they concluded by urging the Government to set apart land for the support of a bishop of the Church of England. The JRe^TVilliam^Tjittx ancl tlie Eev- Mr- Anwell were the first missionaries sent out with the first settlers to Halifax in 1749. Mr. Tutty had to officiate under the trees until the first church, St. Paul's, was erected and opened on the 2nd of Sept., 1750. Five hundred Protestants of the Confession of Augsburg had recently arrived in Halifax. In a body they attached themselves to the Church of England, and were received to Communion; so that in 1752 more than one-half of the entire population belonged to the Church, and there were now over 600 communicants, where two years ago there was not one.
The Rev. John Breynton was sent out the next year to minister, according to the agreement, to the settlers in the townships. He soon established a school in which we are told there were 50 orphans, besides other children. Mr. Tutty died in the next year, and when his successor, Mr. E. T. Wood (formerly of New Jersey), was removed to Annapolis, Mr. Breynton became Rector of Halifax, which had now grown to be a town of between five and six thousand inhabitants. The French priests were about this time withdrawn, and Mr. Breynton set himself to provide for the religious instruction and care of the Indians who had been gathered into the Roman Church, but were now left to themselves. He also mastered the German language, so as to be able to minister, in their own tongue, to his parishioners of that nationality. He mentions in one of his reports to the Society that he had ministered the Lord's Supper to five hundred men of Baron cle Seiltz' Hessian regiment, whose exemplary and regular behaviour, he says, " did them great honour." At the solicitations of the leading men of the province,
16 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN
the honorary degree of D.D. was conferred on Mr. Breynton by the University of Cambridge.
A Dissenter who had been reconciled to the Church speaks of him as a man who had deservedly gained the good- will and esteem of men df-all ranks and persuasions, and as preaching with an eloquence of language and delivery far beyond anything he had ever heard in America.
Another distinguished missionary of these pioneer days was the Rev. John Baptiste Moreau, formerly , a Roman Catholic priest. Prior of the Abbey of St. Matthew at Brest. He had been received into the Communion of the Church of England, and was appointed to minister to his own countrymen. He officiated for the first time on the 9th of Sept., 1750, in the French tongue. The German contingent above described were placed under his care, and so he reports himself as having a congregation of 800 grown persons and 200 children. In the year 1753 almost the whole German population removed from Halifax to Lunenburg, and Mr. Moreau accompanied what was" byiar thelarger portion of his flock. A terrible mortality had befallen these people before their removal. In two years Mr. Moreau reports that jbhree-f ourths of his entire congregation had died. He continued his arduous labours, mnnsterihg"Tn three languages to his congregation, and extending his care to the Indians, several of whose children he baptized. In the year 1770 death called him away from his ministry of great anxiety, and abundant blessings.
The Rev. Paulus Bryzelius, a Lutheran minister, who had been ordained by the Bishop~of~L"ondon, was put in charge of the German mission at Lunenburg. His brief ministry of about five years in all had been very successful. He reports 129 children as having been baptized by himself; 40 young people are re-
EASTERN CANADA AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 17
ported as having been brought by him to communion on one Easter Sunday ; and on the next, over 30. There were 201 communicants in his mission when his last report was made. In 1771 a consid- erable body of the Germans separated themselves from the Church and erected fVlvjpisfr ppr| r.ntheran meeting-hocuses. They applied to Dr. Muhlinburg, the President of the Lutheran Synod of Philadelphia, to send them a minister, but that gentleman dis- couraged their design, and urged them to continue in the Church, as best able to provide for their spiritual needs. Por this the Corresponding Committee of the S. P. G. sent Dr. Muhlinburg a vote of thanks, and a request that he would send them a school- master qualified to assist Mr. Bryzelius in his work among the Germans. The Rev. Peter de la Roche was in charge of Lunenburg in 1773; he was a zealous and hard-working clergyman, his position was rendered very difficult by the vexatious national jealousies that existed in his congregation. He at once addressed himself to the study of German, and by the year 1775 was enabled to officiate in three different languages. During the American War he was frequently reduced to great extremities by the scarcity of provisions, and the small assistance he received from the people.
The Rev. Thomas Wood was one of the most active of these early missionaries. He went on a journey of exploration into the interior of Nova Scotia as early as 1762. He says he was cheerfully welcomed by the inhabitants, and mentions a fact which shows that the old Gallican clergy had not yet begun to learn the ways of their modern Ultramontane suc- cessors. He tells us that during an illness of several weeks he constantly attended the Abbe Maillard, the Roman Catholic Vicar-General of Quebec, and at his request, the day before he died, read for him the
18 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN
Office for the Visitation of the Sick in presence of many of the French, and that then he buried him, using the Burial Service of the Church of Eogland in French. After a short interval Mr. Wood was removed from Halifax to Annapolis. While there, he applied him- self to the study of the Micmae language, and was enabled injj^fiji^to publish the first volume of his Grammar, and a translation of the Creed and the Lord's Prayer in that language. He frequently ministered to the Indians in their own tongue. On one occasion he was conducting such a service in St. Paul's Church, Halifax, the Governor and many of the principal inhabitants being present, when a Chief came forward, and kneeling down prayed for the prosperity of the province, and the blessing of Almighty God on the King, the Royal Family, and the Governor. Mr. Wood explained his prayer in English to the congregation. When the service was ended, the Indians returned thanks for the oppor- tunity they had had of hearing the prayers said in their own language. Mr. Wood acquired great in- fluence over them, and this was greatly increased by the Abbe Maillard's confidence manifested towards him before his death. He was frequently sent for both by the Indians and the French to baptize their children and visit their sick. It would seem, however, that his efforts on behalf of the Indians were not properly supported. No mention is made of the appointment of any missionary after his death to carry on the work so ably begun, and so the Indians at the beginning of the present century had entirely relapsed into the Roman Communion, to which they still almost without exception adhere.
Mr. Wood remained permanently stationed at Annapolis till his death in 1778. He lived in harmony with the members of the various denomin- ations j the greater part of the Dissenters in his
EASTERN CANADA AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 19
mission attending his ministrations. In 1771 the inhabitants of the townships invited a missionary from Massachusetts to come and settle among them. In their letter they stated that most of them had been educated and brought up in the Congregational way of worship, and therefore should have chosen to have a minister of that form of worship, but that the Rev. Mr. Wood, by his preaching and performing the other offices of his holy function occasionally amongst them, had removed former prejudices that they had against the form of worship of the Church of England, and had won them to a good opinion thereof, inas- much as he had removed all their scruples of receiving the Holy Sacrament of the Lord's Supper in that form of administering it; at least they said, "many of us are now communicants with him, and we trust and believe more will soon be added."
In addition to the missionary journeys above re- ferred to, Mr. Wood, at the request of the Governor, had in 1769 made a missionary tour into New Bruns- wick, among the settlements along the St. John river. This was fourteen years before the arrival of the Loyalists at Parrtown or St. John, and so Mr. "Wood found but very few English-speaking people in the province. The population consisted for the most part of French and Indians. In his report to the S. P. G. of his journey, Mr. Wood tells us that he made his way up the river to the Indian village of Okpaak, the farthest settlement, situated on the right bank of the St. John river, about six miles above the present site of Fr&derid;on. On his way up to St. John he per- formed service both in English and Indian, but found that most of the children had been baptized by the Roman priests. At Maugerville he had a congregation of over two hundred persons, but most of them were Dissenters, who had moved in from the United States, and had a minister of their
20 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN
own among them. Mr. "Wood baptized only one person.
He, however, expresses the conviction that if a missionary. of prudence were sent to labour among them, their prejudices against the Church could soon be overcome. He also expresses the conviction that if a young man could be appointed missionary at Gagetown, Bruton, and Maugerville, who could speak the Micmac language,jxll_t he tribes of this place would soon become Protestants; that is, provided, as he complacently adds, that no Romanish priest was allowed to be among them. The Indians had received him with great kindness, and joined reverently in the service which he conducted among them in their own language. He was a hard-working missionary and a great scholar. After a laborious and successful ministry of over thirty years in New Jersey and Nova Scotia, he died at Annapolis in 1778.
The Rev. Joseph Bennett was first appointed a travelling missionary, with head-quarters at Fort Edward (now Windsor), in Jan. 1763. He reported his mission in prosperous condition in 1769. The prejudices of the Dissenters were beginning to wear off, and his hearers at Windsor and Falmouth had doubled their number within two years. In 1775 he was appointed travelling missionary on the coast of Nova Scotia, there being several thousand inhabit- ants now settled along the Atlantic shore. Mr. Bennett continued his itinerant labours for a number of years, exposing himself frequently to the most distressing hardships, having to pass through track- less woods and ford dangerous rivers in order to reach many of his stations. Year after year he penetrated the numerous bays and harbours on the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia, and those of the Gulf shore. On one occasion his schooner was wrecked and became a total loss. On another he was lost all night in
EASTERN CANADA AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 21
the woods, which were still infested with wolves and bears.
The American Declaration of Independence was made in 1776, and then the settlement of the land by refugees began in good earnest. Many crossed the border at once on the conclusion of the war. In 1783 large numbers of these exiles arrived at St. John (then called Parrtown), and among them were several clergymen. The S. P. G. undertook to pro- vide for them, and in this work the Society was ably assisted by the Government. Dr. Cook, who had laboured at Shrewsbury, New Jersey, was appointed to St. John, and Dr. Bardsley, formerly a missionary at Poughkeepsie, to Maugerville. Dr. Cook seems to have been a leading man among the missionary clergy of that time. He had received an English University training, and had no little colonial experience. He had been a missionary in New Jersey before the breaking out of the war, and being obliged to go to England on some matter of business, never returned to the United States. In 1785 he was appointed missionary to New Brunswick ; he spent two labori- ous weeks in reaching his destination at St. John, which was two hundz*ed miles from Halifax by the circuitous road he had then to travel. He was received with great kindness by his congregation, whom he describes as very indulgent. Some time before his arrival, a wooden house, 36 X 28 feet in dimensions, had been purchased and roughly fitted up for a church. It was still very unfinished and incon- venient. Under Dr. Cook's energetic directions it was soon made fairly suitable as a house of prayer, or rather perhaps of preaching, as one of the chief parts of the new equipment was the erection of a gallery. It was used as the church of the town until 1791. Dr. Cook took a long missionary tour to St. Andrew's, which was already a town of two hundred
22 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN
houses, and to other more remote settlements ; and as no missionary was resident within reach, Dr. Cook baptized sixty children on bis first visit, and twelve more before his return. Owing to severe weather his journey was greatly impeded. He had a rough and perilous passage, for he could only then travel by water.
Church matters were now favourably progressing in St. John, and before long a considerable con- gregation was collected, fifty of whom were com- municants. The seat of Government was removed from St. John to Fredericton, and Dr. Cook was also removed. In writing to the Society, he congratulates himself on having left his successor in possession of a decent, well-furnished church, with a very respect- able and well-behaved congregation. In Fredericton he conducted the services of the Church in the King's provision store, which seems to have been used as a sort of public hall, all sorts of gatherings being held in it. Fredericton was very small, and the people very poor, the congregation seldom exceeding one hundred. With the aid of the S. P. G., the Government, and Governor Carlton, Dr. Cook set about the erection of a church, which was finished in 1 790. He lived on the opposite side of the river from that on which his church was situated, and returning to his home with his son, in a bark canoe, on a stormy night on the 23rd of May, 1795, they were upset, and both father and son were drowned. Bishop Inglis reports, that " never was a minister of the gospel more beloved and esteemed, or more universally lamented in his death. All the respectable people, not only of his parish, but of the neighbouring country, went into deep mourning on this melancholy occasion."
The Rev. Mr. Eagleson, formerly a Presbyterian minister, had been lately ordained by the Bishop of London, and was appointed in 1769 to the mission
EASTERN CANADA AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 23
of Fort Cumberland. In 1778 the garrison of this place was besieged and captured by an American Revolutionary force. Mr. Eagleson was taken prisoner, and carried away to New England. After six months' imprisonment he effected his escape and returned to his mission, where he continued to labour till 1778 or 1779. In the mean time he made a missionary tour through the Island of ,St. John, now called ^-ince^Ejlward^S- Island, and preached to the few settlers in most of the places where im- portant parishes have since grown up. He seems to have been the first clergyman that visited that island ; he describes the people as being overjoyed at his coming.
This fairly ends the history of the Non-Episcopal period of the Church of England in Canada. Though it had accomplished great things, it was still but a feeble plant. The American Declaration of Inde- pendence was made in 177fi, and several years after this date there were only eight clergymen in Nova Scotia, and only two in New- Brunswick ; while in Canada there was not one. In 1786, the year before Bishop Inglis' appointment, these had increased to ten in Nova Scotia and six in New Brunswick, two in Newfoundland, two in Canada, and onein^Cape
Br^toju.
One of the first steps of the Nova Scotia Legis- lature, by an Act passed in the thjrty^nd^_year__ of George_ 11.^, was the establishment of religious worship according to the Liturgy of the Church, established by the laws of England. This was declared to be the fixed mode of worship in the province ; and the place where such Liturgy should be used, should be respected and known by the name of The Church of England, as by law established. Ministers were by the same Act required to produce testimonials from the Bishop of London, to assent
24 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN
to the Book of Common Prayer, to subscribe to the orders and constitutions of the Church, and the laws established in it. The Governor was directed to induct the minister into any parish that should make presentation of him. The Governor and Council were empowered to suspend and silence any other persons assuming the functions of ministers of the Church of England. The second clause of this Act declared all Protestant Dissenters, and subsequently all Roman Catholics, to be free to erect their own places of worship, appoint their own ministers, and be free from all rates and taxes for the support of the Established Church of England. This Act has left its mark upon the Church in the Maritime Provinces to the present time ; for while in all the Dioceses of Canada, the Bishop exercises the entire patronage, except when the same has been provided for by some private arrangement, in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick the entire patronage is in the hands of the parishioners.
The custom that was established in the formation of the six townships of Nova Scotia with regard to the grant of 400 acres of land for the endowment of a church, and 200 for a school-master, was extended to the whole country, including New Brunswick, during the first years of its settlement. Many of these lands have been brought under cultivation, and have become valuable glebes.
EASTERN CANADA AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 25
CHAPTER IT.
THE FOUNDING OF THE FIRST COLONIAL BISHOPRIC.
The establishment of the Episcopate in America had been the subject of anxious desire both in the colonies and in the Mother Church, long before the breaking out of the American Revolution. More than a hundred years before the Declaration of Independence, Charles II. had nominated Dr. Murray to the Bishopric of Virginia, but under the Erastian influences of that period, some unexplained reasons of State were allowed to prevent his consecration. And so we find that the colonists, supported by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, petitioned for the appointment of a bishop in 1715 : the grant- ing of this petition, which it will be observed was addressed, not to the Archbishop or the Bishops of England, but to the Crown, was prevented, it is supposed, by Sir Robert Walpole's opposition to the clergy, whom he suspected of favouring the Stuart family. In response to repeated appeals from America, two clergymen, Talbot and Walton, were consecrated by the Non-juring Bishops and set out for America ; they were, however, prevented by the British Government of that day from exercising their functions, and so the Church in America was left for more than a hundred years without a bishop, i. e. until seven years after the Declaration of Independence. Dr. Seabury was consecrated in 1784
26 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN
by the ^cotch^Eishops. Five years later Drs. White and Provost were consecrated by the two English Archbishops of those days. The establishment of the Bishopric of Nova Scotia had been resolved on in 1784; and Dr. Chandler, who before the breaking ont of the Revolution was Rector of Elizabethtown in New Jersey, was nominated by the Archbishop of Canterbury, to whom he had become favourably known during his residence in England, as the first colonial bishop ; but owing to ill-health Dr. Chandler was obliged to decline the offer. The Archbishop wrote to him, expressing his appreciation of his character, and his sympathy with him in his afflic- tion ; he also asked him to recommend to him a suitable person to occupy the position which he was obliged to decline.
THE FIRST BISHOP.
The result was that Dr. Charles Inglis, who had been Rector of Trinity Church, New York, during the progress of the Revolutionary War, was chosen, and was consecrated Bishop of Nova Scotia, at Lambeth, on Sunday the 12th of August, 1787, by the Archbishop of Canterbury, assisted by the Bishops of Rochester and Chester. He arrived at Halifax on the 16th of October, 1787, the first Colonial Bishop of the Church of England.
Dr. Inglis was the third sou of the Rev. Archibald Inglis, of Glen and Kilcarrin, Ireland, where he was born in 1734. His father, grandfather, and great- grandfather had all been clergymen. His father had a limited income, and a large family ; and so the future bishop, without any idea as yet of the high office to which he was to be called, came to America while still young, and engaged for some time in school-teaching. Afterwards, when he deter-
EASTERN CANADA AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 27
mined to devote himself to the sacred ministry, he had, like all young men of that period who were seeking Holy Orders, to return to England for examination and ordination. He was first appointed missionary at Dover, in the province of Delaware, and had the usual experience of backwoods' mission- aries in the extent and roughness of the territory in which he was appointed to labour. After six years' toil in this hard field, he was appointed Assistant- Rector of Trinity Church, New York, in 1765, and in 1777 he was appointed Rector of this same church ; while in 1787, as has been already stated, he was appointed Bishop of Nova Scotia. His Diocese embraced the whole of Nova Scotia, Upper and Lower Canada, New Brunswick, Prince Edward's Island, Newfoundland, and Bermuda ; or in other words, he was made Bishop of the whole of British North America. He had at first only ten clergy in Nova Scotia, six in New Brunswick, and six in the rest of his Diocese to carry on the work in this vast territory. He worked diligently in the discharge of the duties of his office, and the work grew under his administration. He no doubt confined his labours for the most part to Nova Scotia, where the principal settlements were made at first. These settlements were generally confined, both in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, to the coast and river-banks. Farm settlements were gradually extended inland, as new bands of emigrants from the old world or exiles from the United States arrived. The difficulty of supplying these ever-expanding settlements with the ministrations of religion was very great, and the work of supervision and direction was constantly increasing.
Bishop Inglis did not reach his Diocese after his consecration till the close of the navigation in 1787, and yet in the summer of 1792 he made his second
28 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN
visitation of New Brunswick. He was a man of cheery, hopeful disposition, and his report on the condition of the Church is altogether encouraging. The diligent and exemplary conduct of the mission- aries had won, he tells us, the respect and confidence of the people. As a result, their congregations were flourishing, their communicants were increasing, churches were being built, and constant applications for the appointment of missionaries in new districts were being received. The Bishop adjusted many difficulties in connection with the land grants that had been made to the Church, and settled the trusts of parishes and missions during this journey. He was ably sustained by Governor Carleton, who was a devout man, and did all he could, by example and precept, to promote the interests of religion. Four new churches were consecrated, and 777 persons con- firmed by the Bishop during this visitation of the Province of New Brunswick. In 1798 we find the Bishop again at Fredericton ■ while there he visited a school that had been established for black people, under the directions of the Rector, Rev. Mr. Pigeon. The Bishop obtained from the Association of Dr. Bray an allowance of ten shillings a year towards the education of each black child. There is no record of any visit ever having been paid by Bishop Inglis to Canada, Newfoundland, or Bermuda. That, however, does not involve such neglect of these remote and almost inaccessible parts of his Diocese as seems at first to be implied. For in the first place, settlements were not made so early in these provinces as in the more accessible regions of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Then it was only the brief space of five years till Bishop Inglis was relieved of the responsibility of the greater part of his vast Diocese, by the formation, in 1793, of the Diocese of Quebec, embracing at first the whole of Canada.
EASTERN CANADA AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 29
Bishop Inglis died in Halifax on the 24th of Feb., 1816, in the eighty-second year of his age. He had been fifty-eight years in the sacred ministry, twenty- nine of which had elapsed since his consecration to the Episcopate. His son John became third Bishop of Nova Scotia, and his eldest daughter the wife of Chief Justice Halliburton, the author of the widely known Sam Slick.
On the death of Bishop Inglis, an incident occurred which shows how completely the Church and State were at that time identified in the minds of men. Dr. Stanser, Bector of St. Paul's Church, Halifax, had for some time held the position of Chaplain to the House of Assembly. The House was in session when Bishop Inglis died, and by a unanimous vote they recom- mended tothe Crown the appointment of their Chaplain as second Bishop of Nova Scotia. He was accordingly appointed, and proceeded to England for consecration in the autumn of 1816. The health of the new Bishop was, however, so delicate, that after holding his first visitation and ordination, which he conducted with extreme difficulty, he was ordered to return to England for medical treatment. Year after year was spent in the vain hope of his recovery, but he never saw his Diocese again; and finally in 1824 he resigned the Bishoprick, and died a few years afterwards in England. The Church in this widely and rapidly expanding Diocese had been practically without a bishop for eight years ; and apart from the loss which she sustained from the lack of the Episcopal offices of Ordination and Confirmation, she was sorely im- peded in her work by the lack of that Episcopal supervision and direction which are essential to her vigorous expansion and strength.
The Bight Bev. John Inglis, D.D., son of the first Bishop, was chosen third Bishop of Nova Scotia on the resignation of Dr. Stanser. He had been chosen
30 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN
as Dr. Stanser's successor in the Eectorship of St. Paul's, Halifax, and now he was called to the higher office which his resignation left vacant. He was a man of impressive presence and courtly manners. He was consecrated in London in 1825, and returned to Halifax in the autumn of the same year. The original Diocese of Nova Scotia, as has been narrated, was reduced to less than one-fourth of its original territorial extent by the formation, in 1793, of the Diocese of Quebec. It was still, however, of enormous extent, embracing the Provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, and Bermuda. The new Bishop saw the need of a better organization, and at once divided his vast jurisdiction into four Arch- deaconries, each embracing one of the divisions above- named. The Rev. Mr. Best was appointed Archdeacon of New Brunswick ; the Rev. Dr. Willis of Nova Scotia ; the Rev. George Coster of Newfoundland ; and the Rev. A. G. Spencer of Bermuda. In his first visitation of his Diocese in 1826, Bishop Inglis con- firmed 4367 persons, and consecrated 44 churches. He endeavoured after this to visit each Archdeaconry every third year. In 1827, availing himself of the facilities of the well-manned boats of a ship of war, he visited the out harbours of Newfoundland, and so was enabled by personal observation to acquire a knowledge of the most remote and destitute stations of the Church. He had the year before visited Bermuda, where, he tells us, he was received with every possible mark of respect, no bishop having ever before been in that colony. He found the island divided into nine parishes, each provided with a church and small glebe. During his stay he confirmed 1200 persons, of whom 100 were blacks.
The whole period extending from 1825 to 1838 was marked by rapid strides in the progress of the Church throughout the whole Diocese. The clergy had
EASTERN CANADA AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 31
in five years been nearly doubled, vacant missions filled up and new ones established, congregations organized, and churches built and in progress in every direction. The Bishop was unceasing in his visitations, and the reports sent in by many of the missionaries exhibit such minute and satisfactory details as could only be obtained in a faithful discharge of their duty. The temporalities of the Church were, however, assailed in every direction, and the clergy in poor districts forced to endure many privations, consequent on the reduc- tion of their incomes ; yet this was a time of revival in the Church throughout many parts of the Diocese. A spirit of godliness and earnest desire for the salvation of souls pervades the missionary corre- spondence of this period.
Between May and £ept. in 1842 the Bishop con- secrated twenty-one churches in the Archdeaconry of New Brunswick. He reports, " that the state of things here, though not free from difficulties, was never before so prosperous as at that time. I have been called upon," he says, " to perform Episcopal acts for the first time in no less than twenty-two places, separated from each other by hundreds of miles, in all of which new churches have been completed or are in progress. He paid a last visit to this portion of his Diocese in the autumn of 1843, when he held confirmations at twelve different places on the eastern coast, and consecrated several churches and burial- grounds. In discharge of this duty he travelled 6436 miles. It is not to be wondered at that the work of such a Diocese, even after the separation of Newfoundland, was felt to be too onerous for one man. Strenuous efforts were therefore made to have New Brunswick formed into a separate Diocese. This was accom- plished two years later, in 1845, when the Rev. John Medley was appointed to the charge of the new Diocese.
32 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN
Bishop Inglis was now well advanced in years, and was glad to confine himself to the Province of Nova Scotia, as his Diocese was still equal in territorial extent to one-half of England. For five years more he continued in the diligent discharge of his duty ; and after a brief illness departed this life at Halifax in the seventy-third year of his age, and in the twenty-sixth of his Episcopate, venerated and beloved by the people amongst whom he had lived and laboured so long.
THE FOURTH BISHOP OF NOVA SCOTIA.
Bishop Binney was born at Sydney in the Island of' Cape gretpn, on Aug. 12tW l»lg- His father, the Rev. Dr. Binney, was tor many years Rector of this parish, but had for some time been living in England. It is said that the Bishopric of Nova Scotia was first offered to Dr. Binney on account of his knowledge of the country. He, however, declined the honour because of his advanced age, but suggested his son, a young man who had taken a first-class degree at Oxford, and had lately been a chosen Fellow of Worcester College. After due consideration and inquiry as to his qualifications, the suggestion was acted upon, and the Rev. Hibbert Binney was ap- pointed by the Crown as the successor to Bishop John Inglis, and as fourth Bishop of Nova Scotia. No wiser appointment could have been made. Though educated in England, Dr. Binney was a native of the country ; he had spent the first nineteen years of his life among its people ; he understood their sentiments and ways of life ; his family traditions were inter- woven with Nova Scotian history. His great-grand- father, the Hon. Jonathan Binney, lived at Hull near Boston, and removed to Halifax in the early years of its history. His relatives were all in the land, and
EASTERN CANADA AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 33
he himself afterwards married a daughter of Judge Bliss, one of the oldest and most influential families of Halifax. In scholarship Bishop Binney ranked with the foremost men of his time. In natural ability he had few equals, while by connections with, and, one may say, inherited knowledge of, the people, one so qualified for the position to which he was called could hardly have been found. He was con- secrated in Lambeth Chapel on the festival of the Annunciation in 1851, by Archbishop Sumner, as- sisted by Bishops Bloomfield, Wilberf orce, and Gilbert.
The new Bishop arrived in his Diocese on July 21st, 1851, and preached the following Sunday in St. Paul's Church. He inaugurated his work in the Diocese by an ordination held in Halifax, at which six deacons and one priest were admitted to their sacred offices. He next set to work to provide for the neglected poor of the city ; and at his own risk, as well as largely at his own expense, he opened among them what was known as the Bishop's Chapel, Salem. This after- wards grew into the brick building known as Trinity Church, the erection of which was largely due to the liberality of the Bishop and his friends. Following the example of his predecessor, he selected St. Paul's as his pro-cathedral. Troubles, however, soon arose. He had called the attention of the Diocese to the inconvenience of using the academic gown for preach- ing, and to the disobedience to the requirements of the rubrics involved in placing the elements of the Blessed Sacrament on the Lord's Table before the beginning of the Office. This raised a storm of opposition, wThich was led by the clergy of St. Paul's. The Bishop, therefore, determined to remove his chair to St. Luke's Church, which being enlarged by the erection of a suitable chancel, was made the pro- cathedral of the Diocese.
The due maintenance of the clergy of his Diocese
c
34 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN
was always foremost in the Bishop's thoughts. The Diocesan Church Society, aiming at the same objects as the S. P. G., had been fourteen years in existence before his arrival. Its income at the time was 2884 dollars. In the last year of his life it had risen to 9707 dollars. Upon this Society the Bishop grafted a fund for the widows and orphans of deceased clergymen, the superannuation fund for the relief of aged and infirm clergy, and the church endowment fund. This latter now pays about 7000 dollars a year towards the objects for which it was founded. The widows and orphans' funds pay the pension of twelve widows, while the superannuation fund has already a sufficient endowment to meet all claims that are likely to be made upon it.
The clergy of the Diocese increased during Bishop Binney's Episcopate from sixty to somewhat over a hundred. Not more than ten of those who were on the active staff of the Diocese when he came, were living at his death ; so the tide rolls on.
The establishment of Synods was going on apace in the Canadian Church when Bishop Binney arrived. His attention was necessarily called to the subject, and in February 1854 he spoke publicly of the necessity of a Synod in which bishop, clergy, and laity should have a voice. His scheme was stoutly opposed ; but the form of Diocesan Synod which Bishop Strachan first introduced at Toronto was established in Nova Scotia as in all other Canadian Dioceses.
Of the increase in churches in this Diocese, of the improvement in the architectural arrangements and ritual solemnity of these churches, it is impossible adequately to speak ; and the present generation have no idea of all Bishop Binney did, endured, and gave, to bring about these beneficial changes.
He was diligent and unremitting in his visitations of his extensive, rugged, and unreclaimed Diocese,
EASTERN CANADA AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 35
and it is quite impossible for those who travel in these days of railways and luxuriously equipped steamers to realize how laborious these journeys in waggons and fishing craft and coasting vessels necessarily were. Even yet, in many parts of the Diocese, the roads are rough and difficult to travel, in all but the finest weather. The Bishop, however, never either spared himself or complained.
In the matter of duty, the Bishop reminded men of the Iron Duke. He neither spared himself nor others. He would say just what he felt to be his duty, and if his words did cut, it was not from any unkindness of nature or hardness of heart. He had the most overpowering sense of his own responsibility as Chief Pastor of the Diocese, and of the responsi- bilities of the clergy under him. These he deter- mined should, as far as in him lay, be realized, and so he was an inflexible Superior and disciplinarian ; but with all this he was a man of kindly and generous nature. His tenderness to the afflicted, his playful affectionateness towards little children, and his kind- ness to his clergy, manifested often not only by his earnest and affectionate counsel, but by pecuniary and ready help, have secured for him an abiding-place in the affections of the people amongst whom he lived so long.
Two objects apart from his Diocesan labours especially engaged the Bishop's attention. The one was the erection of a suitable cathedral for the Diocese, and the other, the success of King's College, Windsor, the Church University of the Maritime Provinces.
A magnificent site for a cathedral had long ago been given by Judge Bliss. Plans had been obtained from Mr. G. E. Street, the celebrated English archi- tect, and ten thousand dollars were promised if work were begun within a certain time. As this could
36 HISTORY OP THE CHURCH IN
not be accomplished, the Bishop, drawing upon his own resources, undertook the erection of a building, which might afterwards be used as a Chapter-house and Synod Hall, but in the meantime as a Bishop's Chapel, where a congregation might be gathered for a future cathedral. No actual steps seem, however, to have been taken towards the realization of this object until the year of the Centenary Celebration of this, the first Colonial Diocese. Vigorous efforts were, at that time, initiated to realize the life-long desire of Bishop Binney ; but before any material progress had been made, the good Bishop was called away. It is probable that his eloquent and popular successor, if his health be restored, will accomplish the design so long and earnestly cherished. King's College, Windsor, was a Royal foundation, established on the same basis and about the same time as King's College, FrederictoD, and King's College, Toronto. It is the only one of the three of which the Church still has control ; the other two have long ago been secu- larized. And Windsor, in spite of its considerable endowments, has had but a feeble and precarious existence. Bishop Binney, who was Visitor, did much to strengthen and enlarge the University ; his self- denying labours on its behalf are known to all. Through him his father's name is for ever connected with the College. Large gifts from his mother, sister, and uncle, have also contributed to make the name of Binney foremost among the benefactors of Windsor, and his own name will be commemorated by a beauti- ful stained glass window in the chapel of the College. The Bishop also bent his earnest efforts to the establishment of a school or college in which the daughters of the Church might be trained. Two institutions, St. Margaret's Hall and Girton House, established successively for the attainment of that end, though successful for a time, yet, through de-
EASTERN CANADA AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 37
fective management, failed. Since the Bishop's death, another institution of the same kind has been started, mainly by the efforts of Professor Hind, and is giving every promise of permanent success.
Bishop Binney, after a long and laborious Episco- pate, died in the city of New York, whither he hud gone for medical treatment, on the 30th April, 1887.
The city of Halifax, in which he had lived so long, manifested its affectionate regard for him by the vast concourse that gathered at his funeral.
The Rev. Dr. Partridge spoke of him as a prelate of most powerful mind, perfect administrative capacity, and childlike kindness of heart. Prom the first moment of his arrival in the land, he had to experi- ence the most bitter opposition from most of those from whom he should have received support. He steadily fought his way through hostile forces, till after many years he placed the Church in this Province ahead of other Dioceses in faith and good works. When all men were against him, he fought the battle of the Church to such good purpose, that now three- fourths of the Diocese reflects his views, which are themselves the reflection of the doctrinal statements of the Church of England. A considerable interreg- num followed the death of Bishop Binney, owing to the difficulty of electing a successor.
The first choice of the Synod was Dr. Edgell, the Chaplain-General of the forces, who by a long residence in Halifax had won the hearts of the whole people. He, as had been feared, after due consideration, declined the appointment.
The next choice was Bishop Perry of Iowa, IT. S., the historiographer of the American Church, and a personal friend of Bishop Binney. He also, after considerable delay, caused by some accident of com- munication, declined to leave his wide western Diocese for one under the British flag. Finally, after nine
38 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN
months' delay, the Rev. Dr. Courtney of Boston was unanimously chosen, and accepted the appointment.
Dr. Courtney is an Englishman by birth and education. He had become famous throughout the land as an eloquent preacher and a successful parish worker. He is a man of splendid physique, and great powers of conversation, in addition to his oratorical gifts. He at once became the idol of the Diocese, and if his health, which became seriously impaired about eighteen months ago, should, in God's good providence, be restored, his episcopate will no doubt be crowned with ever-widening influence and great success.
EASTERN CANADA AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 39
CHAPTER III.
THE DIOCESE OF QUEBEC.
Nova Scotia, the first Colonial Diocese of the English Church, was founded in 1789. It embraced, as has already been narrated, the whole of British North America, including Newfoundland and the Bermudas. By far the greater part of this Diocese remained a terra incognita to the first Bishop of Nova Scotia. The unbroken forests everywhere covered the land, except along the shores of the sea, and the banks of the great rivers ; so that it would have been exceed- ingly difficult and hazardous, if not impossible, to pass by land from the Nova Scotian to the Canadian part of his Diocese ; while the journey by water would have involved a long sea and river voyage. The Bishop was moreover fully occupied with the planting and supervision of the Church in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick ; and for the present there seemed not much need for attempting to extend his ministrations to the regions beyond.
The whole of Canada had been ceded in 1759 to Great Britain by France, and so at first the only settlers were French Roman Catholics. English garrisons were established at sevei-al points in the newly acquired territory. These were provided with their own chaplains, who were supposed to be quite sufficient to supply all needed ministrations.
The straggling settlers who gradually came in had
40 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN
to be content with such services as the garrison chaplains were able to give them. No action was taken in the mother country till 1780 for the estab- lishment of .the Church in this wild domain.
Work of a purely missionary character had not however been wholly neglected. In 1748, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel had appointed the Rev. John Ogilvie, a graduate of Yale College, as their missionary to the JVEoJaawk Indians in the province of New York. Unceasing warfare had, almost from the first settlement of the country, been carried on between the French colonists in Canada and the English settlers on the Atlantic coast. Constant forays were made by the one side or the other, quite regardless of the fact that England and France were living in peace and professed amity. But now the final struggle in which both the colonies and the mother countries were united (for the possession of the land) broke out. An expedition was organized in the province of New York to attack the French posts in what afterwards became Upper Canada. Nine hundred and forty Indians of Mr. Ogilvie's Mohawk mission joined the invading army. Fort Niagara, the point of attack, was soon captured, and Mr. 'Ogilvie continued with the garrison that was stationed there, ministering both to the Indians and whites. Many of the former embraced the Christian religion, and were baptized. In her work among the Indians, however, the Church of England was at a disadvantage. The Jesuits had before this time, with heroic zeal, estab- lished their missions in every Indian tribe in Canada, and away across the continent to the foot of the Rocky Mountains. They had also supplied them with decent places of worship. Our services, on the other hand, had to be carried on in kitchens and unfur- nished rooms, if not in the open air. The Indians were not slow to make disparaging reflections upon
EASTERN CANADA AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 41
a religion that was outwardly so mean and so poorly equipped.
After the conquest of Canada, Mr. Ogilvie was stationed at Quebec as chaplain to the 60th regiment, a post which he occupied for four years. From a letter of his to the S. P. G. in 1760, we gather that he organized several congregations in and about Quebec, and that he made many converts from the Churgh of Rorne.^ After" his removal, these flourish- ing congregations seem to have been neglected until they dwindled away and disappeared. In 1763, he wrote to the Society from Montreal, strongly urging the establishment of a mission at that point ; but nothing was done. In 1789, the Rev. Chabrand Delisle, chaplain to the garrison at Montreal, again appealed to the S. P. G. for help, and stated that the Roman priests were making use of the neglected state of the Church of England services to persuade the people that the English did not care for their religion, and would do nothing for the spiritual welfare of their people. He himself had no place of worship, and so had to ask the people to go to the hospital for the services he was able to give them. It is easy to see how many would shrink from the danger, real or supposed, of contagion, by doing so. He, however, reports the baptism of fifty-nine chil- dren and one adult, and the admission of three Roman Catholics during the year.
At the conquest, there were about 60,000 French Roman Catholics in the Province, with practically no English settlers. By 1781, the English-speaking population had increased to 6000, and yet provision had not been made for even one clergyman of the Church of England. In 1782, Colonel Claus, then stationed at Montreal, became deeply interested in the spiritual condition of the inhabitants of the country, and especially of the Indians. At the request
42 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN
of the Mohawks, who had lately removed from New York to Canada, he translated the Prayer-book and a Primer into the Iroquois language. He distributed about 250 of these among the Six Nation Indians, then collected about Fort Niagara. This resulted in the conversion of many of these people, who asked to be baptized. In 1784, the S. P. G-. sent the Rev. John Stuart, formerly a missionary in the province of New York, to undertake the charge of this mission. He was shortly afterwards removed to Kingston, but with the continued charge of the Mohawk churches ; a charge which he faithfully fulfilled till his death in 1812. Mr. Stuart is justly regarded as the real father of the Church in Canada.
About the same time another Loyalist clergyman from New York, the Rev. Mr. Doty, was settled at Sorel, and was the first to organize the Church in that part of Canada. In 1787, Mr. Langhorn was sent out by the Society as itinerant missionary, and was stationed at Ernest Town in Upper Canada. In 1793, at the earnest entreaty of Bishop Inglis, of Nova Scotia, the Diocese of Quebec was founded.
THE FIRST BISHOP OF QUEBEC.
Dr. Jacob Mountain was consecrated first Bishop of Quebec, with jurisdiction over Upper and Lower Canada. Dr. Mountain was a French Huguenot by extraction, grandson of Monsieur Jacob de Montaigne, who purchased and resided in Thwaite Hall near Norwich. He was nominated to the Bishopric of Quebec by the younger Pitt, and probably at the suggestion of Dr. Tomline, Bishop of Lincoln, who was a friend of both. At the time of his appoint- ment there were but six resident clergymen in all Canada, and about the same number of churches. Mr. Delisle assisted by Mr. Tonstall was at Montreal,
EASTERN CANADA AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 43
Mr. LaDghorn at Ernest Town, Mr. Addison at Niagara, Mr. Stuart at Kingston, and Mr. Doty at Sorel. In 1795, two years after the Bishop's appoint- ment, the Rev. Jehoshaphat Mountain, a brother of the Bishop, was sent to Three Rivers as assistant missionary. Mr. Doty resigned, and was succeeded by Mr. Rudd from Cornwall, and Mr. (afterwards Bishop) Strachan was ordained by the Bishop of Quebec, to take his place at Cornwall.
In 1812, Mr. Stuart died, and was succeeded in the Rectory of Kingston by his son, the Rev. George Okill Stuart, then serving as a missionary at Little York (Toronto), and Dr. Strachan was removed from Corn- wall to supply his place.
The work proceeded regularly, but slowly, following but not by any means keeping pace with the in- creasing population. The Bishop gave his early attention to the erection of a cathedral in Quebec, which was completed and consecrated in 1804.
About the beginning of the year 1800, the Bishop called the attention of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel to the fact that a large number of English-speaking people were settled in the neigh- bourhood of Missiquoi Bay, and appealed for help to enable him to provide for their spiritual needs. The result of this appeal was a giant of <£50 by the Society, and ,£100 by the Government, for the support of a missionary at St. Armand and Durham.
To this mission that apostolic and saintly man the Hon. and Rev. Charles James Stewart was appointed. There was no church, no school, no parsonage, and it might be added no religion. In that beautiful and fertile district a large number of people from the neighbouring States had settled. These had brought with them very strong prejudices against everything British, and especially against the English Church. The people on the borders of the two countries were
44 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN
moreover rough and irreligious. A clergyman had resided among them for some years before Mr. Stewart's arrival, but failing to make any impression upon them, he had left with his spirits broken.
Mrji Stewart, who may truly be called the Apostle of the eastern townships of Lower Canada, arrived in his mission on a Saturday, and hired a room in the inn for the service the next day. When the landlord was told for what purpose the room was wanted, he tried hard to dissuade him ; and warned him not only that no persons would come, but that the attempt to hold a service might lead to serious personal risk. " Then here is the place of duty for me," was the brave reply. In that unpromising place he remained. After a month the services were held under a more suitable roof than that of the tavern ; in the following year a church was built, and sixty persons were confirmed. In this district Mr. Stewart laboured, living in a single room in a farm-house, boarding with the family of the farmer, and removed from all communication with the educated society to which he had been accustomed. In 1817, having built a church and parsonage, he resigned his charge to a worthy successor, and took up new ground at Hatley, some fifty miles distant. Here he manifested the same evangelizing zeal and constructive energy which had changed St. Armand from a godless settlement to a Christian parish. He laboured for nine years in his new post, and met with the same amazing success. Again he handed his work over to another, and in 1819 received what with great simplicity he called his advance- ment, being made travelling missionary for the whole Diocese. In this capacity he laboured for nine years more, visiting the most remote parts of this vast district, until in 1826 he was called to succeed Bishop Mountain as its chief pastor, with
EASTERN CANADA AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 45
the unanimous approbation of the whole Canadian people.
Dr. Stewart was a man of few gifts, personal or intellectual ; the great and noted success of his min- istry was due to the simplicity and sincerity of his character, to his single-minded devotion to his work ; and, above all, to his secret and sustained communion with his God.
Mr. Stewart was the fifth son of the Earl of Galloway^ Educated at Corpus Christi College, he obtained a Fellowship at All Souls, and thence had taken a benefice in Huntingdonshire ; but he felt himself called on to undertake more arduous work, and specially he desired to fill some post for which no one else seemed likely to volunteer. At first his thoughts were turned to India ; but hearing of the great need of clergy in Canada, he offered himself for service in this land.
Dr. Stewart's character was not of a class we should expect to meet with in the days in which he lived. Simple as a child, devout and studious, he avoided all excitement, both in his personal religion and in his public ministration. In an age when asceticism was not regarded by the English Church as any part of Christian discipline, he led the life of an ascetic, probably without realizing the fact that his doing so was singular. Luxuries whether in food or in furni- ture were never to be found in the rough Canadian farm-house which sheltered Mm ; but such comforts as were available he eschewed. On Fridays his single meal was a dish of potatoes, and he observed the other fasts of the Church rigidly ; neither did he alter his manner of life when he became a bishop. He was the possessor of a small private fortune, which to- gether with his official stipend he devoted, with the exception of what was needed for a most frugal maintenance, to the advancement of the Church's
48 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH Itf
work. He frequently made collections among his personal friends in England for the same purpose, and so he was enabled, with the aid granted by the S. P. G, to erect many churches in the poorer neighbourhoods.
" The churches of which he procured the erection, the congregations which he formed, the happy change which he was often the instrument of effecting in the habits and heai'ts of the people " (says Bishop Moun- tain, his successor), "are the witnesses of his accept- ance among them, and the monuments of his success."
In 1822, Mr. Stewart visited the Mohawk Indians' mission, and reports their condition as lamentably bad, and the occasional visits of one missionary as not being sufficient to produce any deep or lasting effect.
The descendants of these Indians are still living on the Grand River near Brantford, and on the Bay of Quinte. Mr. Stewart also visited at this time the Moravian village of Delaware Indians on the River Thames, and reported, " From the information I have received, I am persuaded that many of them are serious Christians, and lead a righteous life." In 1825 he made a prolonged and arduous journey through the Archdeaconries of York and Kingston, visiting again the Mohawk churches, and inducing the Chiefs to undertake the erection of a parsonage for their missionary, Mr. Hough. There were about 2000 Indians on the Grand River at this time, the majority of whom were heathens.
But to return. In 1814, the Bishop of Quebec set out on a visitation of Upper Canada— the wild west of his Diocese — and it is hardly possible now to conceive what that journey involved in the way of privation and toil ; the Episcopal progress being made in bark canoes, with long portages, and then through woods and swamps in lumber wagons.
The Bishop had been twenty-one years in his
EASTEKN CANADA AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 47
Diocese, and yet the whole staff of clergy in his vast jurisdiction, including the military chaplains and the assistants at Montreal and Quebec, had only risen to eighteen.
In 1816 he visited what are called the Eastern Townships, in the district lying to the south and east of Montreal, and towards the borders of New Brunswick. In the same year, 1816, Dr. Strachan of York (Toronto), made his way through the forests to the Indian settlements on the Grand River, baptized 74 persons among them, and extended his visits to the settlements along Lake Erie.
And so the work went on year after year without much variation. The Church, if not keeping pace with the increase of population, was at least gaining in strength and popularity. The Bishop of Quebec, writing to the Society, expresses his conviction that the circumstances of the country were at that time particularly favourable to the extension of the Church. The rapid inflow of population resulting in the intermingling of different religious denominations, had weakened the prejudices against the Church, and caused the new settlers everywhere to join in appeals to the Bishop to supply the spiritual needs of the settlements. They expressed an earnest wish to be united to the Church ; these demands tire Bishop was altogether unable to supply. During his Episcopate the clergy had greatly increased, with a correspond- ing increase of churches, and yet there were whole townships and stretches of country rapidly filling up with immigrants, which were left without the Church's ministrations. Societies were formed in both Provinces, and funds raised for the building of churches, and much was done for Church extension. But the system pursued was a defective one. The demand for a classically educated ministry was too inflexible, the habit of preaching written sermons
48 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN"
too cold and mechanical, &nd too remote from the needs of the everyday life of the settlers, while the services were read in a formal way.
On the other hand, Methodists, itinerant and local preachers were now swarming over the land, all of them full of zeal, most of them unfriendly to the Church. And before the Church was awakened to the true methods for reaching and ministering to her scattered children, they were lost to her, and have continued ever since hopelessly embittered against her.
BISHOP STEWART.
Bishop Mountain died in 1825, after a laborious Episcopate of thirty-two years.
The Hon. and Reverend Dr. Stewart, who by twenty years of arduous toil in widely extended, itinerating missionary work, had qualified himself for the duties of a missionary bishop, was chosen to succeed Bishop Mountain in the see of Quebec.
Bishop Stewart was the fifth son of John Earl of Galloway. He was a man of gentle manners and simple piety, who is spoken of by his friend and successor as " the boast and blessing of the Canadian Church." Without ostentation or parade, he had left in the quietest manner, scenes and associations of the utmost attractiveness for the purpose of converting the Indians of Canada to the faith of Christ, and of instructing the more savage whites, the trappers and hunters of the forest, in the prin- ciples of the Christian religion. He devoted himself with unremitting earnestness to the discharge of his arduous duties.
At the earliest opportunity he appealed to the Society to renew the appointment of travelling missionary, from which he had been withdrawn.
EASTERN CANADA AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 49
" It is not enough," he writes, " that the services of the person who may be appointed to fill this position should at all times be disposable ; he must possess an unlimitable acquaintance with the country and with the habits of the people."
In 1826, Bishop Stewart visited a great part of the two extensive provinces under his charge, and entered into a close examination of their religious conditions. Before leaving Quebec he confirmed 205 people. At his first visit to Montreal 286 persons were confirmed — many of them were advanced in years. In Upper Canada the number confirmed was about 400. His next visitation took place in 1828. He endeavoured, but without success, to ascertain the number of communicants ; no less than 34 of the clergy neglecting to return any answer to bis inquiries on this head. Under Bishop Stewart's administration the number of the clergy in the whole Diocese had increased to 86 at the beginning of the year 1833. Fifty of these were employed in Upper Canada, and 36 in Lower Canada. Among these are found four future bishops, viz. G. I. Mountain, Dr. Strachan, A. 1ST. Bethune, and B. Cronyn, and four future archdeacons, viz. A. Palmer, A. Nelles, G. O. Stuart, and H. Patton. Nearly all the clergy of those times were engaged in pioneer missionary work. There were not more than four towns in the whole Diocese, and but very few villages. The settlers were scattered through the as yet forest-covered land. They had just cleared a few acres in the bush, had put up a small log- house or shanty, and had a very hard struggle to live. The roads, if there were any, were of the worst conceivable description ; often only a blazed line through the forest led to the settler's cabin. It is needless to say that in that cabin the accommo- dation was very limited, and the fare not very
D
50 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN
varied or luxurious. In and out, among these brave unsophisticated people, the clergy went — on horse- back when they could, but often on foot, holding services in cabins and kitchens and barns, and often in the open air. They were sure of a hearty welcome, and the most generous hospitality that it was possible for the settlers to give them. On the whole they were a courageous, cheerful, uncomplain- ing set of men.
Bishop Stewart was unceasing in his labours, and his life of exposure and fatigue produced before long its natural results. His health quite broke down, so that he became unable any more to perform the more arduous duties of his office. After long and earnest efforts he succeeded in getting his friend, Archdeacon Mountain, consecrated as his coadjutor, under the title of Bishop of Montreal, and with the right of succession.
In the summer of 1836, Bishop Stewart left Quebec for the last time, with the forlorn hope that a voyage to England might add somewhat to his life, and enable him to be still further useful. In this hope, however, he and his friends were disappointed. He was nothing benefited by the change. His strength gradually failed until he saak^to rest, at the age of 62, on the 13th of Jul^l837) A saint, unspotted of the world, fuTTo? aTmsHieeds, full of humanity, and all the examples of a virtuous life ! He died possessed of no pi*operty ; the whole of his private fortune had been expended for the benefit of the Church. He laid up his treasure in heaven, and doubtless is finding it every day in the fresh arrival, in the paradise of rest, of some soul brought to a knowledge of the truth, and saved through some of the instrumentalities which his munificence established in the land.
EASTERN CANADA AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 51
THE SECOND BISHOP MOUNTAIN.
Immediately after his ordination to the priesthood in 1814, the Rev. George Jehoshaphat Mountain re- moved to Fredericton, to the Rectorship of which he had been appointed by the Bishop of Nova Scotia. The failing health of his father induced him, after a stay of three years, to return to Quebec that he might render him whatever assistance lay in his power. He was appointed "Bishop's Official," and began in Jan. 1818 as a simple missionary, and afterwards continued, as archdeacon, to visit the outlying portions of the Diocese. In 1818, he ac- companied his father in what was his first, and his father's last, visitation of Upper Canada. It was in the course of this visitation that he first met with Dr. Stewart, the second Bishop of Quebec. They were both men of refined taste, gentle manners, and humble minds, and of deeply devotional character. They took to each other at once ; and a tender and affectionate friendship, which lasted till the end of their lives, sprung up between the two men. Each seemed only to desire the other's elevation. The only rivalry between them was a rivalry of humility. When Dr. Stewart was appointed to the see of Quebec, he was unremitting in his efforts to obtain as his assistant his cherished friend, now Archdeacon Mountain. That friend, however, was more than disinclined to accept the duty, for his desire from first to last was to serve and not to rule. He only yielded when Bishop Stewart declared that he would have no one else. His consecration as coadjutor took place at Lambeth on the 14th of Jan., 1836, under the title of Bishop of Montreal. On the 12th of September he arrived as coadjutor to Bishop Stewart. On the death of Dr. Stewart the
bl HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN
coadjutor became the third Bishop of the undivided Diocese of Canada. Twice he had been sent to England to urge the authorities there to divide this unwieldy Diocese ; but so far the only action con- sented to, was the appointment of a coadjutor, which issued in leaving the burden of the Episcopal office just what it had been before this action was taken.
Bishop G. J. Mountain's life and character have been portrayed by the affectionate pen of his son. As he passes before us in the halo of private, domestic, and public devotion, we cannot but thank God for the grace which blessed the past years of the Canadian Church with the life and teaching of one who was a saint indeed. From the first he was singularly devout, occupying much time every day in offering prayers and praises to God ; but it was during his declining years that the simplicity of his faith became specially conspicuous. He adopted the Psalmist's rule, " Seven times a day will I praise thee ; at midnight also will I rise to give thanks unto Thee," as the rule of his life ; and for many years before his death he used to rise regularly at midnight to sing praises and render thanks to God. His life was lived with God ; his demeanour both in public and private prayer was that of abstracted and adoring devotion. Three several times his fidelity was put to the sternest test. In 1832, and again in 1834, the cholera beginning at Quebec swept over Canada. In the midst of the pestilence we see Archdeacon Mountain, as the commissioned minister of the Most High, standing between tne living and the dead — if not to stay the plague, at least to point the smitten to Him who had taken the sting from death. ' Grosse Isle, about thirty miles below Quebec, had been set apart by Government as the receiving station for immigrants who arrived, in the pest ships, from Europe during those terrible cholera years.
ti#r
EASTERN CANADA AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 53
The graveyard at the island was rapidly filled. The disease leaped across the channel, arid having fallen like a firebrand in Quebec, it swept through the city like a leaping flame. In less than ten months 3000 out of a population of 28,000 had died.. For two days, at the worst of the plague, Mr. Mountain buried over seventy-five people each day ; and with this, he and his assistants were unceasing in minister- ing to the living. A horse was kept saddled day and night in the stables, ready to fly to the stricken who lived at a distance. Frequently both he and his assistants were out all night, and on many days were not able to return to their homes. Again in 1847, the ship-fever, that fatal product of a famine in Ireland, was imported into Canada. The Anglican clergy, who were few in number, with devoted zeal took the duty week about at Grosse Isle ; Bishop Mountain as he had now become taking the first week. Most of the clergy sickened, and two of them died of the fever. The greatness and intensity of this strain may be understood when it is mentioned that over 5000 interments took placp a.t, Grosse Isle. during the summer of_184JL- The misery and horror of this Station are thus described by the Bishop in a letter to the Society : — " On account of the over- whelming extent of the labours thus given at the quarantine station, produced by the swarms of miser- able beings poured upon the shores of Canada from Ireland, I have found it absolutely indispensable to employ two clergymen at that Station. I felt it right to set the example of taking a turn myself in this duty, and went down for a week. The scenes of wretchedness, disease, and death to be there witnessed, thickening day by day, surpass all descrip- tion. When I left the Station there were almost 1700 sick upon the island; every building which could be made in any way available, the two churches
54 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN
included, being turned into hospitals, together with a vast number of tents, and almost 800 afloat in the miserable holds of the ships." With the utmost exertion on the part of the authorities it was a matter of impossibility to provide the necessary comforts and attendance for these poor sufferers. The daily amount of deaths was frightful. We had not, perhaps, above 300 Protestants sick out of this number ; but so dispersed on shore and afloat, and so intermingled with Romanists were they, some- times two of different faith in one bed, that the labour of attending on them ministerially was immense. Fifteen of the clergy of the Diocese of Quebec, including the Bishop, took their turn at Grosse Isle. Most of them caught the fever; two of them died — the Rev. W. Anderson, who insisted on staying six weeks, and the Rev. W. Morris, who remained two weeks. There were, however, other points in the Diocese where the fever broke out and raged ; points where the poor immigrants, who were allowed to pass on from Grosse Isle, were taken down, specially at Quebec, Montreal, and St. John's. The resident clergy at these places were not behind their brethren, the heroes of Grosse Isle, in their devotion to the pest-stricken immigrants. Of them there died at Quebec the Rev. W. Chaclerton ; at Montreal, the Rev. Mark Willoughby; and at St. John's, the Rev. W. Dawes.
About this time an intimation was received from the Imperial Government that the grant hitherto made to the S. P. G. would shortly be withdrawn. The danger was averted, on the urgent remonstrance of the Bishop, by the application of funds arising from colonial resources, including the Clergy Reserves, amounting to £7000 per annum, to the purposes of the Church in Upper Canada and part of New Brunswick. This set the Society free to apply its
EASTERN CANADA AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 55
grant of £12,855 to the payment of the salaries of existing missionaries in Lower Canada, part of New Brunswick, Newfoundland, and Prince Edward Island. In the Bishop's appeal he says : — " While I leave the clergy under the veil as regards the names, I can vouch for such occurrences as these. A clergyman in his circuit of duty passed twelve nights in the open air, six in boats upon the water, and six in the depths of the trackless forests with Indian guides. A deacon, while scarcely fledged for the more arduous flights of duty, has performed journeys of 120 miles in the midst of winter upon snow-shoes. I could tell how some of these poor, ill- paid servants of the Gospel have been worn down in strength before their time, at remote and laborious stations. I could give many a history of persevering travels in the ordinary exercise of ministerial duty, in defiance of difficulties and accidents, through woods and roads almost impassable, and in all the severities of weather ; of rivers traversed amid masses of floating ice, when the experienced canoe-men would not proceed without being urged. I have known one minister to sleep out of doors when there was snow upon the ground. I have known others to answer calls to sick-beds, at the distance of fifteen or twenty miles in the wintry woods, and others who have travelled all night to keep a Sunday appointment, after a call of this sort on the Saturday. But," he con- cludes, "my chief object in all this confident boasting of my brethren, is to draw some favourable attention to the unprovided condition of many settlements, which may not always comprehend any considerable number of settlers, if their spiritual destitution were not sufficient plea in the beginnings of a great and even now rapidly growing population — dependent in all human calculation upon the religious advantages enjoyed by the present settlers, for the moral char-
Ob HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN
acter which they will exhibit, the habits which they will cultivate, and the faith which they will follow. The stream, in all its progressive magnitude, may be expected to preserve the tincture it receives now."
"The demand," the Bishop says, "for the ministra- tion of the Church of England in Canada has been con- stantly progressive since the date of the conquest. I am in possession of abundant documents to show that the applications to the Bishop for ministers during all this period have far exceeded the means at their command to answer them ; and that even on the part of religious bodies, not originally Episcopal, there has existed in many instances a decided disposition to coalesce with the Church ; a disposition which might have been influenced to the happiest advantage for the permanent interests of religion in the colony, but for the frequent inability of the bishops to provide for the demands."
By the death of Bishop Stewart the whole care of the Church in both the Canadas devolved upon Bishop Mountain, who continued to be called Bishop of Montreal, until the formal establishment of that Episcopate, when he was transferred to and took the title of Bishop of Quebec. At his first visitation of the Diocese the number confirmed was the largest known in Canada ; and he states that the number of clergy, inadequate as it still was to the wants of the people, had at least doubled since the care of churches, less than six years ago, came upon his shoulders.
VISITS RUPERT S LAND.
In 1843, at the request of the Church Missionary Society, Bishop Mountain undertook to visit their Indian Missions in the far-off territory of the Hudson Bay Company. The whole distance involved a journey from Montreal of about 2000 miles, and it was all
EASTERN CANADA AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 57
accomplished either in bark canoes, or on foot. Very- graphic and touching is the Bishop's own account, in his letter to the Society, of this arduous under- taking. Starting at Lachine, about nine miles from Montreal, they paddled up the Ottawa about 320 miles, then made their way by numerous portages into Lake Nipissing, which they crossed. Then down the French river into the Georgian Bay (Lake Huron) ; then for 300 miles they threaded their way through that wonderful Archipelago, containing, it is said, 39,000 islands, to the Sault Ste. Marie. Thence, after a long portage around the Sault, they rowed across the entire length of Lake Superior to Fort William ; thence up to Kemenistiquoia ; through the Rainy and Wood lakes ; down the Winnipeg river ; thence, along the shores of the stormy Lake Winnipeg, to the mouth of the Red River. This they reached on a Saturday long after dark.
They had now occupied nearly six weeks in their journey ; and as the Bishop wished to spend the ■Sunday in the nearest settlement, they moved on all night, and just came in in time for Morning Prayer at the little wooden Indian church probably where Winnipeg now stands. The Bishop visited all the stations occupied by the C. M. S. missionaries except far. away Cumberland, confirmed 846 persons, held two ordinations, and made his way back to Montreal on the 15 th of August, having been incessantly occupied for three months in journeying or visiting the churches.
In his letter to the Church Missionary Society he says — "It is impossible that I can write to you after my visit without paying at least a passing tribute to the valuable labours of those faithful men whom the Society has employed in the field of its extensive operations. And the opportunity which was afforded me of contrasting the condition of the Indians who
58 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN
are under their training and direction with that of the unhappy Indians with whom I came in contact upon the route, signally enabled me to appreciate the blessings of which the Society is the instrument, and did indeed yield a beautiful testimony to the power and reality of the Gospel of Christ." The report of the Bishop on the needs of the North-west led before long to the formation of the Diocese of Rupert's Land, and the appointment of Bishop Anderson. That one Diocese has since been divided into eleven, all but one of which is now ruled over by a bishop.
Shortly after his return, the Bishop yisited Gaspe,_ _450 miles below Quebec. He concludes his account of this visitation by saying — " We go over a great deal of space to effect things which at present are upon a very humble scale. I have just travelled 228 miles to visit one little insulated congregation. The Diocese consists of scattered, often feeble, congregations, en- joying but scanty and imperfect provision in religion ; with churches standing unfurnished for years to- gether, and sometimes with no churches at all ; with poor missionaries enduring hardships as good soldiers of Jesus Christ, yet labouring for a few here and a few there, so that all looks in some eyes unimportant, Priests and people alike of destiny obscure. But are they not highly regarded, the very objects for Christian sympathy and help 1 For myself, I cannot but view it as a privilege, for which the deepest thankfulness is due, that I have been permitted, with whatever feeble ability, to follow up the work of my beloved predecessors, and to go on enlarging on their plan from year to year, in such a field."
BISnOP S COLLEGE, LENNOXVILLE.
To the earnest and untiring efforts of Bishop Mountain the University of Bishop's College owes its
EASTERN CANADA AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 59
existence, and may justly be considered the great achievement of his life. The College was designed first to provide all necessary appliances for the educa- tion of the ministry of the Church of England in the Province of Quebec, and secondly to offer to the country at large the blessing of a sound and liberal education based upon religious principles. The village of Lennoxville in the Eastern Townships was selected as its site on the ground of its central position in reference to the English-speaking population of the Province. The College has grown from small be- ginnings to be a large and influential institution, with various Faculties and a substantial endowment. It has also built up, side by side with the University, a public school after the model of the great public schools of England, which has done and is doing noble work for the education of the youth of the country. The College was founded in 1845, and erected into a University by Royal Charter in 1852. The Bishop himself and his family contributed largely to the endowment, as did also the S. P. G. and S. P. C. K. The two Societies have always shown a warm interest in the welfare of the College, and largely aid in the maintenance of candidates for Holy Orders in it.
During these early years of Bishop Mountain's Episcopate the Diocese prospered greatly. At the visitation held in 1845 the number of the clergy had risen to 73 in the remaining Diocese of Quebec, and of this number 53 were missionaries of the S. P. G. In the spring of 1846, the Bishop confirmed in the parish church of Montreal 325 persons, the largest number ever confirmed by any bishop in British North America at one time. The number confirmed in the same year in the cathedral in Quebec was 218. During this visitation, which occupied the greater part of two years, 2012 persons were confirmed, and eleven new churches consecrated.
60 HISTORY OP THE CHURCH IN
THE CLERGY RESERVES.
The question of the Clergy Reserves had now come to the front, and as that question occupied such a prominent place in the politics of the country, and in the history of the Church, it may be well to explain briefly what is meant by it.
The Clergy Reserves of Canada were created by the Constitutional Act of 1791. Bishop Mountain, in a letter to the S. P. G., in 1836, thus explains the matter — "The case of the Church in Canada, with respect to the formation and maintenance of its establishment, is briefly this. The territory having been ceded by France to the Crown of Great Britain in 1759, a Protestant population by degrees flowed in, with the prospect of course of continued accession. Measures were therefore taken by the Government to provide for the spiritual wants of this population. In 1791, when the two distinct Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada were established by what is com- monly called the Quebec Act, the Royal Instructions to the Governors having previously declared the Church of England to be the established religion of the Colony, to which Instructions reference is intro- duced in the Act — a reservation of one-seventh of all the lands in Upper Canada, and of all such lands in the Lower Provinces as were not already occupied by the French inhabitants, was made for the support of a Protestant clergy. . . . The little value attached in the earlier stages of British possession to tracts of wild land, and the hopelessness of obtaining a tenantry upon the clergy lots so long as the fee-simple of the same quantity could be obtained in the same way as free grants or for a trifling consideration, caused the pro- perty to remain for a long time unproductive ; and so it was greatly disregarded by the Government, in whose
EASTERN CANADA AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 61
hands the management of it resided. In 1806, how- ever, measures were taken to erect a Corporation in each Province for the management of the Reserves ; but it was not till 1819 that these Corporations went into operation."
About this time a controversy arose as to the proper legal construction of the Act of 1791, and the intention of Parliament in passing it, as well as to the interpretation to be given to the words "Protes- tant clergy." This controversy waxed hotter and hotter, until it led to the passing of another Imperial Act in 1840, which directed that the Clergy Reserves should be divided into six equal parts, two of which were to be appropriated to the Church of England, and one to the Church of Scotland (Presbyterian), ^^ and TKe other three to be applied by the Governor of the Province for the purpose of public worship and religious instruction in Canada. This settlement, though acquiesced in by the two bodies benefited, did not, as might be expected, prove satisfactory to the numerous other religious bodies in the land. The secularization of the Reserves became the political question of the day, until in 1854 the whole of these lands were resumed by the Government, and the income derived from them was applied to purposes of education and public works.
Vested rights, however, were so far respected, that the salaries of the clergy who at the time of the secularization were being paid out of this fund, were continued for life. Provision was also made by which individual clergy were allowed to commute for a lump sum on condition of paying over this commutation to the several Church Societies, and accepting the guarantee of the Church Society as security for the same in place of the Government as security for the annual payment of their salary. The clergy of Canada, with one exception, came into this scheme ;
62 HISTORY OP THE CHURCH IN
and thus what are called " Commutation Funds " were established in the various Dioceses, which have proved of the greatest service to the Church.
In 1842, long before the passing of this Act, in order to call out and consolidate the offerings of the Church for the promotion of its various objects, a Church Society was established. Its special objects were — (1) The support of the clergy and their widows and orphans; (2) Promoting Day and Sunday Schools; (3) Helping candidates for Holy Orders ; (4) To be a Bible and Book Society ; and (5) To aid in building churches, parsonages, &c.
The system of Church Societies did excellent service for the time being in the Colonies ; but the very effort at organization made the need of something more and better only the more felt. The claims of Synodical action were now being pressed upon the Church on all sides, both at home and in the Colonies. The wonderful results of the Conciliar organization of the American Church were ever before the eyes of the Canadian Churchmen. An Act of the Provincial Legislature was obtained removing all doubts as to the right of Churchmen to meet in Synod and manage their own affairs. As soon as this Act was passed, Bishop Mountain proceeded to organize his Diocesan Synod under it. Great difficulties, however, now developed themselves. There had been for many years in the city of Quebec a small but influential party of extreme Low Church views. This party had been a sore thorn in the side of Bishop Mountain from the first. They now proceeded to organize themselves and agitate with a view to secure the control of the Synod, and specially to exclude from its constitution the Episcopal veto, the right of the clergy to a separate vote, and the regulation that all Lay Delegates must be communicants. The con- troversy extended over the years 1857 — 1860, and
EASTERN CANADA AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 63
the bitterness and ferocity with which it was carried on, especially as against a man of the gentleness, courtesy, and saintly character of Bishop Mountain, are scarcely conceivable in the calmer atmosphere of the present day. The establishment of the Synod, however, largely helped by their own violence, killed this faction. When the Synod met, they were found to be in a very insignificant minority, and the gener- osity with which that minority was treated by their opponents completed the victory.
After and in consequence of the first few years of the working of the Synod, happier days ensued ; sus- picion and distrust died out ; and the last few years of the saintly Bishop's life were years of quietness and peace and goodness.
At the Synod of 1862, arrangements were made for celebrating, on the 2nd of August following, the fiftieth anniversary of the Bishop's ordination. On that day an impressive service was held in the cathedral. Addresses were presented. The beautiful Forelay Asylum, or Church Home for the aged and infirm poor, was dedicated ; and a sum of money for the purpose of founding a scholarship in the Uni- versity of Bishop's College, Lennoxville, to be called " The Bishop Mountain Jubilee Scholarship," was placed in the Bishop's hands.
The University, it is said, was regarded by him as the greatest work of his Episcopate. It was therefore a special gratification to him to have his name thus associated for ever with the child ofshis special affection. The year of Jubilee was speedily followed by the year of release. The rest of the summer was spent in visiting the coast of Labrador, where a mission sup- ported by the S. P. G-. had lately been established. In this visitation he had undergone much hardship by land and water, by which his vital powers were perhaps weakened. No one, however, thought that
64 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN
the end was near. He entered into the Advent and Christmas services with impressive devotion and joy of heart. On St. Stephen's Day he sickened and took to his bed. The apprehension that the sickness was unto death stirred the heart of the whole community. In every church of his own communion, and in some of the Koniaii Catholic churches, prayers were offered for his recovery. But it was not to be. On the Feast of the Epiphany, 1863, the saintly Bishop, whose life has left its lasting impress upon the Church, gently closed his eyes in death.
BISHOP WILLIAMS, FOURTH BISHOP OF QUEBEC.
When the Synod assembled to elect a successor to Bishop Mountain, two names only were thought of — the Bev. Armine W. Mountain, son of the late Bishop, and Bishop Anderson of Ruperts Land. The balloting till late in the afternoon showed a large majority of the clergy in favour of Mr. Mountain, and a small majority of the laity voting for Bishop Anderson. The Bev. J. W. Williams, who had taken a good degree at Oxford in 1851, and who had for some time been coming into note in the Diocese of Quebec as the Beviver and Head Master of the Lennoxville Grammar School, had been chosen to preach the sermon at the opening of the Synod. That discourse had profoundly impressed the whole Synod. And so, as the conviction grew that it was impossible to elect Mr. Mountain, the delegates began to vote in ever- increasing numbers for Mr. Williams, until before the day closed he was duly elected to fill the vacant see.
The Bishop-elect was only thirty-seven years old when chosen ; but from the first he has manifested the gravity and wisdom of the aged. His administration of the Diocese has been eminently successful, and its pro-
EASTERN CANADA AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 65
gress in all that outwardly indicates prosperity re- markable. The Diocese, though of enormous extent, has a very limited English-speaking population, and only about 25,000 of that population belong to the English Church. The very smallness of the English- speaking population exposes them to continual dis- advantage in carrying on the business concerns of the country, and has a natural tendency to still further diminish their numbers by an almost en- forced emigration. The Diocese, and especially the city of Quebec, the only place of wealth in the Diocese, have lost heavily in this way during the twenty-eight years of Bishop Williams's Episcopate. At the beginning of that period the Diocese had only just entered upon the arduous task of learning to support itself, having hitherto depended almost ex- clusively on assistance derived from the S. P. G. There was not one self-supporting parish in the Diocese. Bishop Mountain had spent his income as Rector of Quebec in augmenting the stipends of the city clergy, so that by his death the city parishes lost, and had to make good to the clergy at once, 3000 dollars a year. Outside the city of Quebec there were then thirty-four missions, the clergy of which did not receive on the average 100 dollars a year each from their own people ; the bulk of their stipend — in many cases their entire salary — being derived from the S. P. G. The outlook was a dis- heartening one. Bishop Mountain, a man so un- worldly in his personal character, and who possessed opportunities of knowledge of the subject out of the reach of other men, speaks of the prospects of the Church in his Diocese, before this heavy loss which his own death entailed, with trembling apprehension. Most clearly does his deliberate judgment, that the crisis was one full of danger to the Church, come out in the calm and well-considered words which he
6Q HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN
addressed to the Synod at its second session in 1860. " It cannot be concealed," lie said, " that we have had, and have now, great difficulties to be faced. We have lost the countenance and recognition of the Government. We have been despoiled of our patri- mony, and the great Society which has nursed the Church in the Colonies has been carrying out for some years a system of gradual reduction in the aid hitherto extended to us. Our people in the meantime have become habituated to live upon extraneous aid, and are slow to learn the necessity of adequate exertions and sacrifices of their own." And then, after speaking at much length of the poverty of the Diocese, he closes by saying — " The Diocese of Quebec does not, humanly speaking, present a very encouraging aspect to those who have its wants and interests in charge." "How completely," writes Archdeacon Roe, in his sermon on the twenty-fifth anniversary of Bishop Williams's consecration, " how happily have all these dark forebodings been proved groundless by what we witness to-day ! Instead of ruin and decay, we see everywhere life, energy, and progress. The parishes in the Eastern Townships, the English-speaking part of the Diocese, doubled in number ; the stipends of the clergy increased by one-half, and the material equipment of our Diocese for its work the admiration of the whole Canadian Church ; a provision, steadily increasing, made for our clergy when aged or infirm ; the Diocese covered with churches and parsonages, many of them models, most of them built under the new order ; our Church University endowed almost afresh, and nobly equipped for its work. For so poor, so thinly peopled a Diocese, to have provided for itself, within twenty-five years, almost exclusively out of its own resources, all these endowments, aggregat- ing as they do so large a sum of money, and that too while in the midst of the struggle to make its
EASTERN CANADA AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 67
missions self-supporting, is an achievement I think unexampled."
These results Archdeacon Eoe, in his Biographical Sketch of Bishop Williams's Life, attributes almost exclusively to two causes — the financial organization known as "the Quebec system," and the spirit of unity and self-help that has grown up in the Diocese under Bishop Williams's administration. The main features of " the Quebec system. " are — (1) An equitable assess- ment, graded according to means, of the amount to be paid by each mission towards the stipend of its clergyman ; (2) The payment of this assessment, not directly to the clergyman, but to the Diocesan Board of Missions ; (3) A simple but effective means of enforcing its regular and punctual payment ; and (4) The payment of the entire stipend of the missionary by the Diocesan Board. " Under this organization," writes Dr. Boe, " while the Diocese, at least in the city, has declined in wealth, and while the grant from the S. P. G. has been reduced from 10,000 dollars to 5,000 dollars, thirteen of the thirty-four parishes have become entirely self-supporting, and eleven new missions have been established. The salaries of the clergy have been increased from £100 sterling to a graded scale of from 600 to 850 dollars per annum, according to term of service. The Pension Fund for aged and infirm clergymen has grown from nothing at the beginning of Dr. Williams's Episcopate to 35,000 dollars capital now. And still more satisfactory is it, that the Diocese has grown in missionary spirit, so that out of this poor Diocese there was sent in 1888 3500 dollars to help the general missionary work of the Church.
The system of Local Endowments mentioned above, as one of the most valuable features of the financial organization of the Diocese of Quebec, owes its origin to the wise foresight of Bishop Williams. Shortly
68 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN
after his consecration he issued an appeal to the Diocese urging the absolute necessity of endowment to a Diocese situated as is that of Quebec, pointing out the advantages of a large number of small local endowments over a large Central Fund, and calling upon the clergymen and wardens of every parish to begin at once forming the nucleus of such a fund. This effort was seconded by a grant of £1000 from the S. P. G., and an offer of a gift from Mr. Robert Hamilton to every such Local Endowment Fund of a sum proportionate to the amount raised on the spot. " There are now," writes the Bishop, " thirty-six Local Endowments outside the city of Quebec, with special trusts, of which thirty-four, with a capital of 90,485 dollars, are the direct results of this appeal."
"Turning," says Dr. Roe, "to the progress of the Diocese under Dr. Williams in higher things, one feature at once suggests itself — its religious unity and freedom from party spirit. The two addresses presented to the Bishop at his twenty-fifth Anniver- sary Celebration, both of them drawn up by laymen, made reference to this happy state of things, and traced it directly to the Bishop's influence. Bishop Williams is a man of commanding presence, and dignified manners. His sermons have a majestic stateliness which seems to become well the Episcopal dignity. He has won the unhesitating confidence of his Diocese in his justice, judgment, and common sense. And his social influence, growing out of his intellectual powers, his wide literary culture, and his unfailing and kindly humour, is unbounded."
The following were among the most prominent clergymen of the diocese during this period : — The Rev. Jasper Hume Nicolls, D.D., nephew and son- in-law of Bishop George Mountain, sometime Michel Fellow of Queen's College, Oxford, and thirty-two years Principal of Bishop's College, Lennoxville, a
EASTERN CANADA AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 69
fine scholar, a natural teacher, and a man of singu- larly pure and unselfish life. Best of all his benefits to the Canadian Church was that he impressed, in the case of all who could receive it, the stamp of his own truthful and single-minded character upon the many- generations of young men whom he trained for the sacred ministry ; and left to the College which he organized and presided over so long, the invaluable tradition of what a true Church of England man ought to be.
He was followed in this position by the Rev. Joseph A. Lobley, D.C.L., a distinguished graduate of Cambridge, whose brilliant abilities, sound judg- ment, and splendid gifts of teaching and discipline won for him the confidence of all good men, and the affectionate regard of all who knew him personally. After twelve years of the most excellent scholastic work in Canada, he returned to England, where he soon after died suddenly of heart-failure. Never was there a nobler or a more unselfish spirit, or a more fruitful ministry and life.
What the Church of Canada owes to the Mountain family is beyond words to tell. The two Bishops Mountain and Jasper Nicolls have been mentioned. In no respect falling short of the best of them in self-denial and devotion to the souls of men, was Armine W. Mountain, Bishop George Mountain's eldest son. Upon the whole of his life was ever the unmistakable stamp of saintliness. His ministry was nearly equally divided between Canada and England, the first twenty years being given to the city of Quebec. There the extreme self-denial of his life and his consuming zeal in his ministry put to shame the lives of ordinary earnest men. After seven years' labour in the district of St. Matthew's, he organized the parish of St. Michael outside the city, built its beautiful church, parsonage, and
70 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN
schools, and laboured in it for twelve years so as to make it a model of what a country parish ought to be. The rest of his life he spent at St. Mary's, Stoney Stratford, where at length, worn out with his too zealous labours, added to his ascetic life, he died. His body rests by his saintly father's side in his own parish of St. Michael.
" The diocese of Quebec, however," writes one who is competent to speak, "is more indebted than to any other man after its Bishops for its progress and prosperity, its unity and peace, to the twenty-seven years of loving and devoted service of Charles Hamilton, now Bishop of Niagara. To him it owes the splendid success of its renowned financial organ- ization— the Diocesan Board ; to him mainly the development out of its deep poverty of a multiform endowment which puts the Diocese for all time beyond the fear of financial collapse ; but most of all influ- ential upon the whole Diocese has been the admirable organization of St. Matthew's parish, and his loving ministry there for so many years. What ought not the Church of Quebec to be, with a ministry extend- ing over three-quarters of a century before its eyes of three such men as George Jehoshaphat Mountain, Armine Mountain his son, and the beloved Charles Hamilton 1 "
EASTERN* CANADA AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 71
CHAPTER IV.
NEWFOUNDLAND.
The Diocese was separated from Nova Scotia, and formed into a separate jurisdiction in 1839. It comprises the whole of the Island of Newfoundland and the adjacent islands, that part of the vast peninsula of Labrador north of Blanc Sablon, and the Bermuda Islands. The Bishop also exercises jurisdic- tion over the English residents in the French Islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon. The area of Newfound- land is 42,200 square miles, and of the Labrador part of the Diocese, 160,000; in all 202,200 square miles, exclusive of Bermuda, or 80,000 square miles greater than the British Isles. The extremities of the Diocese are nearly 2000 miles apart. The population, exclusive of Bermuda, was, according to the census of 1884, 197,235. The chief industries are the cod, seal, and lobster fisheries, in which one-half of the inhabitants are engaged. There are valuable mines of copper and lead worked up to a limited extent. The richest of these are, however, on that part of the island in which the French have by treaty certain fishing rights, and on this account are not available as an industry for the inhabitants.
The interior of the island is only beginning to be explored, and now valuable lands and extensive lumbering possibilities are being disclosed.
HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN
Such exclusive attention has been devoted to the industry of the sea, that agriculture is almost neces- sarily in a backward condition, though now it is rapidly improving. A railroad is being built across the island, and a colonization scheme is being formed for the settlement of immigrants along the fertile valleys. Large herds of deer and cariboo are said to be found in the interior, partridge and other game are plentiful, while every stream teems with trout, and in some of the larger ones salmon are abundant.
The early history of Newfoundland is full of interest. It stands first in point of time of English colonial possessions. Columbus had offered his services to Henry VII. of England, as indeed he had to several other monarchs before they were accepted by Ferdi- nand of Spain. Henry bitterly regretted the hesita- tion that had lost him the services of that heroic discoverer ; and so he gladly accepted the proffered services of John Cabot, a Venetian, and gave him a commission " to navigate the ocean in search of any countries, provinces, or islands, hitherto unknown to Christian people, and to set up the King's standard and take possession of the same as vassals of the Crown of England."
In 1497, Cabot with two ships reached the shores of Labrador and Newfoundland. He saTIedalong the coast for some distance and then returned to England. In the following year he returned, touched at Prince Edward Island, and in the name of his Sovereign claimed possession of the whole of North America, north of Florida. No permanent settlement was however, made in any part of this vast territory ; and as late as 1602, we are informed that there was ' not a European in all that vast continent.
The spirit of adventure and discovery slumbered for more than a century in England after the dis- covery of Newfoundland by Cabot. After a time
EASTERN CANADA AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 73
large numbers of fishermen from the maritime coun- tries of Western Europe gathered on the banks and bays of Newfoundland year after year ; but no permanent settlements were attempted by the Euglish. In fact they were forbidden by the Government to attempt to make settlements there ; and so the fisher- men who set out from the coast of England in the spring, had to return when the winter set in, and leave the island in possession of the French and Dutch settlers. There was neither government nor laws, and so contentions and wrong-doing were rife on every side. But England was too much occupied with troubles at home to give any attention to her shadowy claim of sovereignty over this far-off island, her only colonial possession at the time. As soon, however, as the Reformation was firmly established, the Parliament of England addressed itself to regu- lating the fisheries of Newfoundland. The spirit of enterprise blazed forth afresh, and four different charters were granted by the Crown to individuals for the purpose of settling the island. The first of these charters was granted to Sir Humphrey Gilbert in 1578. A chaplain was appointed to the Admiralship of each of these expeditions, "that Morning and Evening Prayer, with the Common Ser- vice approved by the King's majesty and laws of the realm, be read and said in every ship daily by the minister." It may therefore be inferred that when Sir Humphrey Gilbert came to Newfoundland, in .1583, "with two good ships and a pinnace," he brought the required minister in the Admiral; and that the first celebration of the Divine Offices, accord- ing to the Prayer-book of the Church of England in this Western world, was held in Newfoundland. Certain it is that Sir Humphrey, on Sunday, Aug. 4th, 1583, in the harbour of St. John's, made the first proclamation of religion on this continent, and de-
74 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN
clared that in public exercise it should be according to the Church of England.
An earnest spirit of devotion animated these early- adventurers. The charters state that they were undertaken chiefly for the purpose of making known " the faith of Christ, for the honour of God, and in compassion to the poor infidels captured by the devil." Cabot himself drew up instructions for these merchant adventurers for the discovery of new regions, in which he directs, that " no blasphemy of God or detestable swearing be used in any ship, nor communications of obscene, filthy tales, or ungodly talk to be suffered in any ship, to the provoking of God's just wrath, and sword of vengeance." Direc- tions are given to the minister to say Morning and Evening Prayer daily ; and Cabot himself prays unto the living God for his brother mariners, " That He might give them His grace to accomplish their charge to His glory, and that His merciful goodness might prosper their voyage, and preserve them from all danger." Well would it have been for England and the world if all her expeditions had been carried on in this spirit !
Richard Whitbourne, a native of Devonshire, seems to have been the first Englishman that visited these shores. He was a merchant of good estate, and had traded with most of the known nations of the world. He began his voyages to Newfoundland, in 1580, and was present in St. John's harbour when Sir Humphrey Gilbert took possession of the land, in the name of Queen Elizabeth. He suffered greatly from pirates, and on his complaint was commissioned " under the great zeal of the Admiralty, to explore and to make in- quiries into the disorders and abuses that were com- mitted yearly upon the coasts." One hundred and seventy-five complaints were at once lodged, from which it appears that the utmost lawlessness and
EASTERN CANADA AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 75
brutality prevailed throughout the island. We have no record of the results of these inquiries, but Whit- bourne appealed to King James to establish a planta- tion on a surer and better footing than those of Sir Humphrey and others. The King approved of his plans, addressed a letter to the Archbishops of Canter- bury and York, and urged them to assist, by ordering collections to be taken up in all parishes of England for the furtherance of the captain's good endeavour, the main object of which he himself thus describes —
" It is most certain that by a plantation there, and by that means onely, the poor unbelieving inhabit- ants of that countrie may be reduced from barbarisme to the knowledge of God and the light of His truth, and to a civil and regular kinde of life and govern- ment. This is a thing so apparent, that I neede not enforce it any further, or labour to stirre up the charity of Christians therein, to give their furtherance towards a worke so pious, every man knowing that even we were once as blinde as they in the knowledge and worship of our Creator, and so rude and savage in our lives and manners.
" Onely thus much will I adde, that it is not a thing impossible, but that by means of those slender beginnings which may be made in Newfoundland, all the regions near adjoining thereunto (which between this place and the countries actually possessed by the King of Spaine, and to the north of Newfoundland, are so spacious as all Europe), may in time be fitly converted to the true worship of God."
He addresses his Majesty as one whose " principale care hath ever beene the propagation of the Christian faith," and adds, "But as the smallest terrestrial action cannot possibly prosper, without God's Divine assistance to perfect and finish it : so this great work, so pious and noble of itselfe, as tending to the propa- gation of so many Christian souls to God, will (by
76 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN
His eternal providence and great mercy) be both furthered and blessed in the attempt, preservation and establishment thereof."
About this time the island began to bear a more settled appearance. Wa^taJioj1s_j\rei£^ t along the coasj^ and roads were cut througE^the' forests connecting one settlement with another. gt. John's became the_great shipping and trading, stabonj moreover, the island became the earliest resorTo? persecuted religious bodies from England. We are told by Anspach that several settlements °i_^£i^B§-S2£e-^^he£e.- AmTTJeFbre long IF" r~r^refugebFSir~5e5rge Calvert, afterwards
f-
^ordj^dtimgre, who naaTeTHnTOEurch ofEngland for the Roman Communion. The King granted him *n 1622 -a charter of tWwrhnlft island, and constituted him and his heirs absolute lords and proprietors of the peninsula formed by the bays of Placentia and Trinity. This he erected into a Province which he called Avelon, after the old nam a of Glastonbury : because _he intended it to be the seed-plot" of Christianity to this new~"world. as Avelon waTT^^T"' supposed to have been to his native land. He was harassed by accusations made against him of har- bouring Jesuits, which was at that time a penal offence ; and being disappointed in his expectations about his Newfoundland plantations, he asked for a grant of land on the continent of America. He died before his request could be complied with. The patent was, however, made out in favour of his son, Cecil, the second Lord Baltimore, conveying to nim the district wnere the city of Baltimore now stands. The son of this Lord "Baltimore returned to the Church of England.
Lord Baltimore's complaints, and the heartrending accounts of the land sent home by the settlers, had somewhat prejudiced men's minds against settling
EASTERN CANADA AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 77
in the island. The fisheries, however, went on increasing in extent, and settlers gradually made homes for themselves along the coasts. The first attempt to legislate for these settlers and fishermen was made in the reign of Charles I.
The Report of the Commission appointed for that purpose is endorsed by Archbishop Laud. It enacts, amongst other things, that, " Upon Sundays the com- pany shall assemble in meet places and have Divine Service, to be said by some of the masters of the ships, or some others, which prayers shall be such as are in the Book of Common Prayer." Another order was made in 1634, by Charles I., at the instance of the Archbishop, by which all the members of the Church of England in the colonies, and in foreign countries, were placed under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of London ; an enactment which has done more to delay the appointment of bishops in the colonies than all other acts and ordinances put together.
After the withdrawal of Lord Baltimore, Sir David Kirke, who had served the King in the entire subjugation of Canada to England, obtained from Charles I. a grant of the whole island with the power of a Count Palatine. He established himself at Ferryland, in the house built by Lord Baltimore. He set himself to correct the false impressions which Lord Baltimore had given of the country, and wrote several encouraging accounts of its productiveness and prospects. He had equal dislike to both Roman Catholics and Puritans, and regularly maintained the services of the Church at Ferryland. During the ten years' Civil War, from 1640—1650, Sir David held the island for the King. After his death it remained till 1729 without the least protection, law, or order. This caused the country to become the refuge of all kinds of criminals
78 HISTOEY OP THE CHURCH IN
who had broken the laws of the mother country, and the whole society was reduced to the most terrible condition of misrule and anarchy. A petition was presented by the inhabitants, in 1660, to the Lords of Trade and Plantation for the appointment of some local Governor and magistrate, who should decide disputes and prevent disorders among them ; but this request was opposed by the merchants and shipowners of London and Bristol, who said that " the establishment of a Governor had always been pernicious to the fishery." They were the great monopolists of the day, and prevented the reasonable request of the inhabitants being complied with. They did not want the island to be settled, and so they prohibited the cultivation of the soil under heavy penalties. The captains of fishing vessels were obliged to give bonds to bring back to England each year as many fishermen as they carried out. The erection of houses was forbidden, and women were excluded from the island. At home the country was described as a barren and inhospitable rock ; and on one occasion the ruthless decree went forth to burn the houses of all who durst settle upon its shores ; and had it not been for the timely intervention of Sir Leolyne Jenkins, who secured the reversal of the decree by representing the advantages the French would derive from the total abandonment of the island, Newfoundland would, in all probability, have become a French instead of an English colony. These barbarous enactments seem to have grown out of the apprehension that if the people settled in the island, and gave their attention to the cultiva- tion of the soil, there would not be a sufficient supply of fishermen to carry on the lucrative trade, or of trained seamen to man the British Navy, the ascendancy of which was essential to the safety of the rapidly expanding trade of England.
EASTERN CANADA AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 79
In spite, however, of these prohibitions, settlements increased, and fierce rivalry sprang up between England and France for the possession of this Eldorado of the Sea.
The trade of the country was remitting to the mother country a million sterling annually. Crude laws for the government of the fishery were adminis- tered by fishing admirals (the first skipper arriving from England to a part of Newfoundland was admiral for that season), by whom justice was sold almost openly to the highest bidder, and even commanders of the warships, sent here for protection of the fishery, were not free from the same impeachment.
The closing of the fishery was the signal for freedom from all restraint, and those who made this their permanent home abandoned themselves to all kinds of " profligacy, idleness, robbery, and piracy." It would be an endless task, and by no means profitable, to follow for many years the squabbles and disputes for power — might being right — among a people who were, to use the words of an eye- witness, "the offscouring of the Kingdom of England and Ireland, and who had found in this island a sanctuary and place of refuge from their crimes." A French missionary writing of them in 1699 says — "They have not a single minister among them, though more than twenty of them (the settlements) are larger than Placentia. They do not know what religion they belong to." To the same purport were representations made to the home authorities, and in that same year I find an Order in Council was made " for keeping the people living there in Chris- tianity, by sending a chaplain in the convoy ships " ; but such was the apathy and indifference of the times, that no effort was made to give it effect.
The spiritual and temporal rulers at home were alike careless. The Church was sleeping, and the
80 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN
plague-spots were allowed to grow and fester. Some few God-fearing captains from the West of England, affected by the miserable condition of their fellow- countrymen in the island, petitioned the Government, "That a sufficient number of ministers should be sent to the principal harbours, and that they might be paid from England." The Bishop of London, as Ordinary of the plantations, was also appealed to ; but all their entreaties produced no result, and the degraded fisher-folk were left uncared for, destined to forget the faint rudiments of Christianity which they had brought with them across the seas. The darkest hour is always before the dawn. The bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness were soon to be seen rising over the distant horizon, and Newfound- land was to be gladdened by the services of a clergy- man bold and zealous enough to cast in his lot with a people of such a character. His name was the Rev. Mr. Jackson, who had for some time before held the position of chaplain to the convoy ships. In this way he became acquainted with the country and the people ; and in 1697 he was persuaded by the planters and adventurers to abandon that position, and settle down to the laborious life of a clergyman in Newfoundland. To this arrangement he had the consent of the Bishop of London. Nothing but earnest devotion, and compassion for perishing men, could have induced him to abandon his prospects of promotion in the service, and to accept a position among such a people and in such a time, with the sole guarantee of £50 sterling a-year, and that to continue for three years only. Mr. Jackson soon succeeded in procuring, by the aid of the traders, the erection of a church, which was called handsome. This, however, stood but a short time. The struggle between the French and English for the possession of the island was then at its heisrht. The French
EASTERN CANADA AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 81
made frequent havoc of the property of the English people in all the harbours of the island. In 1705 they attacked and burned St. John's with its new church, though they were not able to capture the fort and the garrison. The French were soon driven away, and a new church was at once erected near to and under the protection of the Fort, without any outside assistance. Through the partial failure of the fisheries, Mr. Jackson's stipend was not paid, and he would have been compelled to abandon his mission had not the S. P. 0. K., on the representa- tions of Dr. Bray, its founder, come to the rescue, and secured Mr. Jackson in his promised £50 for three years. He had the whole island for his parish, and carried on service as frequently as he could in all the English settlements. Dr. Bray reported, " That there were constantly in the several bays of the island 7000 people, and in summer about 17,000 souls. The inhabitants were poor and unable to support a minister ; drunkenness seems to have been the besetting sin of the times, and caused more suffering to the poor settlers than the plundering of the French. This was followed by riot and robbery unparalleled in the whole Christian world." Long neglect had hardened the hearts of the people. Among these Mr. Jackson strove hard to fan the dying sparks of religion into a flame. In all his efforts he was assisted by Commodore Graydon, the only one of the Commodores sent to the island to regulate the trade and fisheries, who took any pains to do the country any justice, or to establish religion. Mr. Jackson incurred the wrath of Major Lloyd, the chief personage in the island, who had distinguished himself by expelling the French from all the positions they had occupied. Mr. Jackson rebuked him for his cruel exactions from the people, and for his contemptuous disregard of the Lord's
Oil HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN
Day and all religious ordinances. By his representa- tions Lloyd was degraded from his position of supreme authority, and made subject to the Commo- dore. This awakened such a storm of persecution that Mr. Jackson resigned, and returned to England in 1760. For nine years he had manfully and fear- lessly discharged his duties, amid losses irreparable, toil unrequited, and hardships inconceivable. In the years succeeding Mr. Jackson's withdrawal, the records of the Church's work are very meagre. The Rev. Jacob Eice was about this time sent out by the Bishop of London, but it does not appear for what work he was designated.
The inhabitants of Trinity Bay petitioned in 1791 that a missionary might be sent to work among them. They promised to build a church, and con- tribute towards the missionary's support. In answer to this appeal the Eev. Eobert Killpatrick was sent out by the S. E. C, with a salary of £30 per annum. Before long he removed to New York; but in 1736 he returned to Trinity. Bay, to be heartily welcomed by a large congregation, amongst whom he minis- tered till his death in 1741. He reported his average congregation at Trinity as 250 in summer, and that at Old Eerlican at 200. Four years earlier the Eev. Henry Jones had been settled at Bonavista, where he reports a flourishing congregation, with increasing communicants. He established a school at Bonavista in 1726, and had nearly completed his church in 1730. He was engaged for twenty-five years in missionary labour in Newfoundland.
The Bey^Mr. Beaseley, of Trinity College, Dublin, was appointed" resident missionary at St. John's about the year 1745, where he had crowded congre- gations. He also ministered to the residents of the contiguous out-harbours. He was removed to South Carolina in 1750, and was succeeded by the Eev.
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Edward Languian of Balliol, Oxford. The Church seems to have greatly run down, as he reports only- forty families as belonging to the Church of England in St. John's, and of these only thirty were commu- nicants. In 1790, he visited Placentia . JBay, and baptized fifty persons, nearly all adults. The majority
?f the residents in the out-harbours were Roman •atholics. Mr. Langman was a laborious missionary. His allowance from the Society was only £50 per annum. He reports the gratuities received from his flock as being inconsiderable, and says that he had to go and beg from them as a poor man would for alms ; and yet he stuck to his post without flinching, till his death, in 1783. He was succeeded by the Eev. John Price, of whose life and labours no record has been obtained. Jn 1768, the Eev. Lawrence Coughlin, who was, .one 'of Wesley's lay preachers, and for three years previously had been residing among the inhabitants of Harbour Grace and Carbonear, was ordained by the Bishop of London, and appointed a missionary of the Society. He preached in Irish, and many Eoman Catholics attended his services. He reports an average of from 150 to 200 communicants. He organized the religious members of his congregation into classes after the plan of Wesley ; In 1765, the Eev. James Balfour was appointed missionary at Trinity Bay, with the out-harbours of Old and New Perlican and Bjmavista._ After nine years* labour here, he was removed to the more important station of Harbour ■Grace,. _.the population of which he reports as consisting of 4462 Protestants and 1306 Eoman Catholics, the number of communicants at almost 200. He was succeeded in the mission of Trinity Bay by the Eev. John Clinch, who laboured there for many years.
A petition was presented to the Society by the
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inhabitants of Placentia for the appointment of a / clergyman, in which they pledge themselves to con- tribute to his support.
His Eoyal Highness Prince William Jgenry, after- wards King William 1_X* was then in command of a ship of war on that station. He contributed liberally towards the erection of a church, and pre- sented them with a silver communion service, which they still show with pride.
The condition of Newfoundland at the period treated of in the foregoing pages presented dangers and discouragements to missionary enterprise far surpassing any difficulties experienced by the mes- senger of the Cross in that country or any other portion of British America at the present day. The population of the island was of a much more fluctu- ating character than at present ; it consisted of a few thousands, principally poor fishermen, thinly scattered among the innumerable bays and harbours of more than a thousand miles of northern seaboard, inaccessible except by water, on account of the rough face of the land and the absence of roads. The missionaries were compelled to travel great distances by water, passing around by headlands and promon- tories in open boats and small fishing-vessels in order to reach the scattered stations under their spiritual care, and exposed to the swell of the wide Atlantic. On shore they had no better ac- commodation than the fishermen's huts (dens they often were) afforded. The fare was of the plainest kind and rudest character. In addition to these hardships many of these men had to subsist upon the £30 to c£40, all that the Society for the Propaga- tion of the Gospel, then in its infancy, could afford to give them.
In 1798, the Society having regard to the labours and dangerous duties of these missionaries, increased
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their stipends in proportion to the situation and the circumstances of each station. During this period the Church can hardly be said to have held her own. There had been no increase in the number of missionaries for ten or twelve years, and for a great part of that time there were but three resident clergymen in the island. In 1817, the salaries were increased by the Society to £200 per annum.
The island, as has been narrated, formed part of the Diocese of Nova Scotia ; but although two bishops of that Diocese had passed to their rest, the islanders had been left without any Episcopal supervision or help. In 1827, Bishop John Inglis visited New- foundland, and found 600 communicants, twenty three school-masters, and ten clergymen.
BISHOP SPENCER.
In 1839, Newfoundland and Bermuda were formed into a separate Diocese, and the Bev. Aubrey S. Spencer, who came out as a missionary to Newfound- land in 1819, but who was Archdeacon of Bermuda at the time of the foundation of the new see, was consecrated its first bishop.
" At my consecration," says Bishop Spencer, " to the see of Newfoundland, I found only eight clergy- men of the Church of England in the whole colony ; the Church itself in a most disorganized and dis- pirited condition ; the schools languishing, many of them broken up. The clergy of Newfoundland are maintained mainly by the noble Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Lands ; but the people are called on by the Bishop to provide a house and a small stipend, according to their respective means, for their several missionaries."
The Bishop set himself at once to establish a Theological Institution for training young men for
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the ministry. He also divided his Diocese into three Rural Deaneries — Avelon, Trinity, and Bermuda. In his letter to the S. P. G-., 1841, he says— " In the course of my visitation during the present year, I have travelled by land and by water 1188 miles, visited thirty-five stations, confirmed 1136 persons, consecrated six churches, organized or assisted in the building of twenty-one new churches, ordained two priests and eight deacons, and founded or restored more than twenty clay schools or Sunday schools."
Bishop Spencer laid the foundation of the cathedral in St. John's, and after an earnest and active Episcopate of four years in this Diocese, he was transferred to Jamaica in 1843. He wrote the following memorandum to guide the authorities of the Mother Church in selecting his successor —
"The missionary in Newfoundland has certainly great hardships to endure, and more difficult obstacles to surmount, than those which await the messenger of the Gospel in New Zealand or India, or perhaps in any field of labour yet opened to the known world. He must have strength of constitution to support him under a climate as rigorous as that of Iceland ; a stomach insensible to the attacks of sea-sickness ; pedestrian powers beyond those of an Irish gossoon ; and an ability to rest occasionally on the bed of a fisherman, or the hard boards in a woodman's tilt. With these physical capabilities he must combine a patient temper, an energetic spirit, a facility to adapt his speech to the lowest grade of intellect, a ready power of explaining and illustrating the leading doctrines of the Gospel and the Church to the earnest though dull and ill-formed inquirer, and a thorough preparation for controversy with the Romanist, together with the discretion and charity which will induce him to live as far as may be possible at peace with all men."
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The see remained vacant till April 1844, when the Rev. Edward Feild, of Queen's College, Oxford, and at that time Rector of English Bicknor, was conse- crated, and proceeded immediately to take charge of his Diocese. Those who have read Mr. Tucker' s_ charming Life of Bishop Feild, will see that the second Bishop fulfilled all the requirements which the first Bishop indicated as being demanded for the effective discharge of that office. Indeed in some respects he went far beyond them. His whole life was penetrated with a profound devotion, humility, and simplicity, which, though not enumerated in his predecessor's catalogue of needs, yet contributed more than all the rest to the reverent affection in which he was held, and to the great success with which his Episcopate was crowned.
" If there is one man's character and memory which I revere more than another's," writes the Rev. Ed. Coleridge, " it is that of the guileless saint (Bishop Eeild) who has just ended his earthly labours. I shall never forget the impression which his sincerity made on us all. Undaunted in spirit, clear in his convictions and sense of duty, he never hesitated as to his actions, and this not from any impulsive temper, but from a habit of instinctively and promptly following what his conscience told him was his duty. Full of the spirit of his Mother Church, and thoroughly trained in her discipline and laws, he simply followed this Divine leading. I suppose he never thought for a moment of paring down or adjusting the faith or practice of the Church to conciliate the world or to satisfy the unbeliever." The result was that before long he had gained the respect and affection of all good men.
"The secret," writes a friendly observer, "lay in the conviction, that in striving after the glory of his Master and the good of his fellows, that man had
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forgotten his own self and his own pleasure, and had chosen a pathway of stern and constant self-denial."
He was consecrated at Lambeth, on the 28th of April, 1844 ; and on the 4th of July following he landed at St. John's amidst signs of welcome which overpowered him.
Before setting out on an inspection of his Diocese, he set to work at once to improve the spiritual condition of St. John's. He instituted daily Morning Prayer in St. Thomas' Church, and announced his intention to have daily Evensong also as soon as possible. This soon became the rule of the Diocese, ever since diligently observed. He removed the pulpit and desk, which obscured the altar, and made such other alterations as might, in his own language, " exhibit to the clergy the proper arrangement of a church."
He found the theological seminary which his predecessor had established occupying poor wooden buildings, with only ten students. These lived in lodging-houses without any supervision. He required them to attend daily prayers, and had them instructed in Church music, that they might be able to lead the services of the Church. The Rev. R. Eden, afterwards Primus of Scotland, at that time Rector of Leigh in Essex, presented his friend, the Bishop elect, with a church ship, a brig of eighty tons, that he might be able to visit the various parts of his practically mari- time Diocese. She was found to be too unwieldy, and with Mr. Eden's consent was exchanged for a more manageable vessel. The Bishop did not reach St. John's until the 4th July, but before winter set in he had visited most of the settlements on the island.
The Bermuda Islands, a group of coral reefs about twenty-five miles in length, by not more than three or four in width, lying 1200 miles south-east of
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Newfoundland, were part of the Diocese over which Bishop Feild had to preside. He strongly and fre- quently protested against this arrangement, and offered to give up half his income to have his Diocese divided.
He visited these islands during the first winter of his Episcopate, and thereafter every alternate winter. To most people it would have been a delightful retreat to leave the fog and frost of Newfoundland for this sunny, balmy clime. But Bishop Feild's whole soul was so in his work that he always chafed under the loss of time in making the long voyage, and the long absence from the centre of his work. His sojourn in the islands seldom lasted more than ten weeks ; his visits therefore exposed him to two voyages of an especially dangerous character, at the very worst seasons of the year.
On his return to Newfoundland in the spring of 1845, he made a thorough visitation of the island. " He was received with all the tokens of welcome usual among seafaring people ; flags were hoisted, and guns fired, and on all sides warm greetings were given."
The churches that had been built on the island were not only pewed churches, but had freehold pews, which were bought and sold as private property. The Bishop's great personal influence is manifest in the fact, that in his first visit he persuaded the people to surrender their private rights, give up their pews, and make their buildings over to him in trust for the perpetual use of the inhabitants.
In St. George's Bay, the farthest point of his trip to the south, he found what recalled the happy home he had left in the valley of the "Wye — church and mission-house and school all grouped together in the sunny bay, with a staff of two priests and a deacon, working amongst a people who only a few years ago
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had never seen a clergyman. As he wound his way- back, the Bishop came upon coves and settlements, whose inhabitants were seventy miles from the nearest clergyman. He found traces of Archdeacon "Wix's visit of ten years before, the people repeating the prayers which he had taught them, and showing the Bibles and Prayer-books which he had given them. In some places he found spiritual life sustained by the piety of the resident agent of the merchants, who conducted the service of the Church in his house every Sunday, and welcomed all who would join him. But the lack of religious instruction, and of the means of grace, was upon the whole distressing. Thousands of Church people were scattered along the coast, literally as sheep without a shepherd. Between St. Ceorge's . Bay and Placentia, a distance of over 400 miles, there was only one clergyman. The Bishop says he was constantly solicited, even with tears, to provide some remedy or relief for this wretched destitution of all Christian privileges and means of grace. He was absent on this trip for over three months. In every place he himself visited the sick, baptized, instructed, and confirmed the people.
On his return he writes to his friends at home — " Can you by any possibility find any men who, for the love of souls and Christ's sake, will come over and help us in this most forlorn and forsaken colony ? I have visited thousands who have not seen a clergy- man for two, three, five, twelve years, and I can say, simply and sincerely desiring to be instructed, and to hold the truth in righteousness."
To obviate the evils of Congregationalism, Bishop Feild insisted upon every parish and mission con- tributing to a central fund ; and he constantly endeavoured, in spite of increasing opposition, to make the pledge to contribute to this central fund the test of Church membership, and of the right to receive
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the ministrations of the clergy. "We can only wonder at the courage of the man, who, after a little more than one year's acquaintance with his people, made these sweeping changes.
The need of additional clergy pressed so sorely upon the Bishop, that he offered to give up the £500 contributed towards his stipend by the S. P. G., if by so doing five clergymen could be sent over to help him. And yet he never sought to beguile men to come to his assistance by drawing bright pictures. He insisted on the healthiness of the climate, and the blessedness of enduring hardships for Christ's sake. He told those inquiring that a mere maintenance was all he could offer; £150 a year, bread and fish, without the possibility of obtaining fresh meat or fresh butter for a good part of the year, or beer or wine at any time ; and yet he wrote — " I am not without hope of men devoting themselves to mission- ary work, with no prospect but food and raiment ; willing, nay, rejoicing to be put into positions of difficulty and privation for Christ's sake and His Church. I presume to think that some ardent spirits will be found ready to spend and be spent both here and elsewhere."
In the second year of- his Episcopate the principal church of St. John's and a large part of the city were destroyed by fire. The Bishop, on his return from the northern parts of the island, was urged to visit England to solicit contributions for the erection of a new church. After a little hesitation he determined to go, put the little mission-ship, the Hawk, in readi- ness, and taking with him an invalided clergyman, two divinity students, and two other persons, he set sail, and on the 6th of October, after a stormy and perilous passage, they reached England. He returned to his Diocese in 1847, and laments that he had not been able absolutely to secure the services of one clergy-
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man, or of one person regularly educated for the sacred office, while three priests and three deacons were removed by death during the time of his absence. One of these had ministered in a Bay where 2000 Church people lived. Time, however, proved that the Bishop was mistaken in his first estimate of the effect of his appeal for men. In a little while, one clergy- man, one school- master, and eight candidates for Holy Orders volunteered for work in his Diocese. Some of these were trained in St. Augustine's, Canterbury, and some in St. John's College, and proved efficient helpers in the mission-field. It has been said that nowhere in the mission-field have the clergy been more patient, more contented, more united among themselves, and more devoted to their work than in this desolate island. And though the Bishop never suspected it, others saw that the inspir- ing and sustaining cause of this patient endurance, was his own endurance of a hard and devoted life without complaining. Of one of these missionaries a layman writes — " We entered the cove as the sun was going down ; to our surprise, from behind a pine grove, the church-bell began to call us to prayer. Just as we entered the porch of a neat wooden edifice, a thin elderly man, who had been tolling his own bell, entered the desk and began the daily Evening Prayer. After service, my friend told me that he was another blessing brought to the Church there by the Bishop's influence. They had been personal friends and first-class men at Oxford, and, like the Bishop, this man, besides being the possessor of ample private means, gave up his living in England to come out and work under his old College friend, in this remote fishing village, practically cut off from intercourse with the great civilized world beyond. Without wife or servant, he lived in his cottage Presbytery, close by the church, being for the most
EASTERN CANADA AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 93
part his own cook and housekeeper — a true hermit, caring for nothing but the little flock for whom he fervently prayed, and over whom he watched with tender loving care.
Terrible disasters and shipwrecks from the ever- recurring hurricanes were ever and anon befalling one or other of the scattered settlements. In one of these, forty-five fishermen, living in. Flacentia Bay, lost their lives ; and the Bishop adds, " There is no clergy- man there now to comfort and instruct the people."
The Bishop writes — " Thousands and thousands of the people have not seen the face of a clergyman for the last twelve months. Mr. Bridge, the Rector of St. John's, performs four services every Sunday ; the first of these two miles away, at eight o'clock. Mr. Tuckwell has five churches or parishes under his charge, the nearest eight miles off, and only a deacon to assist him. He is also master of the Collegiate School, of which he has the whole care and chief instruction. Last Sunday, starting at seven o'clock in the morning, he drove over the snow to his first service, eleven miles away, while Mr. Tramlett the deacon was off even earlier on foot to his duty, ten miles away.
The Bishop seems to have raised in all about £25,000 for the erection of the cathedral, a very beautiful structure. He had misgivings at first about spending so large a sum on the material build- ing. He says — " Even if we had the money, would it be right to spend such an enormous sum on the material temple while bodies and souls are starving for lack of necessary food 1 St. Wulstan is said to have wept when he saw the great pile of his cathe- dral going up, because, he said, they have left build- ing temples of men to build one of stones ; but surely there is more occasion to weep when we build of stone before we have built of men % "
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The Bishop devoted himself to the establishment of a College and Collegiate School, which should take the place of the Theological Institute founded by his predecessor, and which might supply a liberal educa- tion, not only for the clergy, but for such laymen as might be induced to avail themselves of its advantages. He wished the College to be called "Queen's," in honour of her Majesty Victoria, and in memory of his own "Alma Mater." His aims were, however, very modest ; all he hoped for in the way of a teach- ing staff for the institution was a Provost and two resident Fellows. He was at the time largely sup- porting the Theological Institute out of his own income.
Bishop Feild was not aware in accepting the Diocese of Newfoundland, that he was responsible for the spiritual oversight of the coast of Labrador, and he greatly shrank from the additional burden this would lay upon him ; but when he became aware that the government of Canada, and consequently the Diocese of Quebec, ended at Blanc Sablon, and that the coast of Labrador from that point to Baffin's Bay was within the civil government of Newfoundland, he hesitated no longer, especially as it became apparent that nobody else could be expected to assume the charge of this barren coast. And so, on the 6th of July of this year, the Hawk, with the Bishop on board, set forth on her unknown voyage to explore that coast. As companions on this voyage he had the Rev. S. Cunningham, his wife and child, going to take up their residence in the distant mission of Bruges ; the Bev. Mr. Addington, going to serve as deacon and curate in Fortune Bay ; and the Rev. Messrs. Hoyles and Harvey, together with Mr. Brown, a student.
Owing to prevailing head winds, they had to put into Harbour Briton, and were rejoiced to catch sight
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of the cassocked, contemplative figure of the Rev. Jacob Mountain, the faithful priest, who had quitted the refinement and pleasures of a happy home in England to minister to these poor fishermen, and watch for their souls. When the wind changed they at once set sail, and took Mr. Mountain with them to visit a part of his parish, ninety miles away. It was dark when they entered Bruges Bay, the future home of Mr. Cunningham and his wife. They were heartily welcomed by the inhabitants, whose church had been closed for three months. During this time the poor people had had great sorrow and suffering without any word of consolation to sustain them. After a voyage of 500 miles through fog and foam, the ship entered St. George's Bay, only to experience a great disappointment. The clergyman in charge, only a deacon, had never received the notice sent him the previous autumn of the Bishop's intended visit. The ship carrying that notice and his winter supplies had been wrecked ; and so in the spring, being greatly straightened for food and raiment, he had gone, on the first opportunity, to St. John's, and had passed the Bishop on the way ; and so, though three years had elapsed since the Bishop's last visit, there could now be no confirmation, as no preparation had been made ; and so the Ilaivk bore away to the coast of Labrador, and landed first in the harbour of Forteau, a place which no clergyman had ever visited before.
Service was held in a store, pains being taken to make it as churchlike as possible] many were baptized, and many couples married. The winds continued so long adverse that the Hawk could not get forward, and the Bishop made his way to the north in a small fishing craft, sleeping on the unboarded ribs of the boat. He writes, however, that "it was not the hard fare or the coarse lodging that made up the chief hardships of these voyages. The dense ignorance of
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the poor people so soon to be left to themselves again, weighed most heavily upon our spirits." At many- places, he says, " we were cheered with a reverent congregation, or would have been cheered, but for the retrospect and prospect." The Bishop was deeply affected by the neglected condition of the people whom he bad visited. He addressed pathetic appeals to the Church at home to " send some suitable clergy- man to take the oversight of these poor people." The Bishop of London was deeply touched witb the account of this visitation, and seconded the appeal with earnest entreaty. The next year Bishop Feild made a voyage of sixteen weeks along these shores, and took with him two young deacons who had volunteered for work in Labrador. They visited Bay of Islands, which the Bishop had been unable to reach on his previous voyage. On August 2nd, he rowed nine miles to visit an old patriarch, ninety years of age, whose bodily strength was nearly gone. He welcomed his visitors, and spoke with pleasure of the visit of Archdeacon Wix twelve years ago. He and the Bishop were the only clergymen the old man had seen in a lifetime of seventy years.
After a voyage of six weeks, Forteau, the future home of the Rev. A. Gifford was reached on the 8th of August. The Bishop thus describes the parting —
"Here Mr. Gifford was to be put on shore to commence, alone and unfriended, his ministerial and missionary work. It was no common event, no common trial, to be left alone among utter strangers, common fishermen, without house or home, on the coast of Labrador, and no possibility of escape or retreat ; no prospect of seeing a friend, or even hearing by letter from one for nearly a year. What a con- trast in every point and circumstance to my first curacy ! During our stay we had prevailed with a fisherman to put a board partition across his sleeping-
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room, and assign one part to Mr. Gifford, the other half being kept for himself and wife. The meals would be taken together in a little kitchen, and of course could consist only of fish and other Labrador fare. The change even from the accommodation of the Church ship was terrible ; but nobly did Mr. Gifford endure the trial, and mercifully was he sup- ported. He stood on the shore as the Church ship got under weigh, and watched her with emotions which can be better imagined than described, until she faded out of sight on the distant horizon."
All the circumstances of the first messengers landing on the coast of Labrador do surely show signs of Christian daring and devotion not to be mistaken or despised !
The Rev. Wm, Pilot, B.D., thus describes the region — " Labrador- is ^ wot-]^ as y^t unexploreiLits aspect., is gloomy and forbidding, it is destitute of timber, and its gpil is incapable of cultivation. Numerous scattered settlements break the barren uniformity of its rugged coast, but the roads of communication between them are the waves in summer, and the track of the hunter in winter. At this latter season the thermometer often stands for a long time atj.5° below zero. The settlers along the entire coast number about 4200, of whom about 2000 profess allegiance to the Church of England. In the summer the coast becomes the rendezvous of over 30,000 people, all engaged in the salmon and cod fishing."
When Bishop Feild had completed his first voyage, he steered again for St. John's, which he did not reach till the 16th of October. He and his party went at once to church to render thanks for their safe return. The voyaging of this year cost the Bishop nearly £400 sterling, though nothing was spent that could be avoided. Tea and biscuit were the usual fare ; fresh meat or butter or milk or soft
G
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bread were seldom obtainable. The Bishop seems to have made a habit of visiting these far-off Labrador missions every three years at least. One of the clergy now settled there. The Eev. H. P. Disney, touched by the Bishop's appeal and a description of the work, gave up his living in Ireland to plant the Church at Francis' Harbour. His example was followed by the Rev. G. Hutchinson, who had left his pleasant parsonage at West Malvern to spend the rest of his life in lonely Labrador. He died in his mission of Topsail on Oct. 5th, 1876.
Speaking of his visitation in 1855, the Bishop says — " I have been as far as Bonney Bay and the Bay of Islands, places not visited by any clergyman but by myself and my companions in the Church ship. I have called and celebrated services at all the principal settlements on the western and southern coasts ; have seen and spent some days with all the clergy ; have consecrated five new churches and seven cemeteries ; have given the Lord's Supper at fifteen, and confirm- ation at eighteen settlements, sometimes on shore and sometimes on the Church ship. During the whole three months I have only slept on shore one night."
In 1856, while the Bishop was making arrange- ments for a voyage along the coast of Labrador to Hudson Bay, his faithful and most laborious co-worker, Archdeacon Bridge died, leaving four churches and 2000 souls without a shepherd. As the Bishop was mourning his great loss, news came that another of his clergy, the Be v. Mr. Boland, in the discharge of his duty had been caught in an ice-drift in the month of March and frozen to death. A heavier loss was still in store. The Rev. Jacob Mountain, the faithful missionary of Harbour Briton, had been persuaded to move to St. John's, and take charge of the cathedral. A virulent fever was raging in the town at the time. Mr. Mountain, who was
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unsparing in his ministrations to the sick, caught it, and on the 10th of Oct. passed to his rest. Mr. Gifford, the young Labrador hero, had started for England in ill health, but when he heard of the Bishop's distress he at once returned to his mission. Then Mr. Hutchinson was brought to St. John's by a man-of-war from his barren Labrador rock, where he had spent three years in absolute separation from his brethren and friends. He had never tasted fresh meat during that time, and was greatly broken down in health. After a short stay at St. John's his health was completely restored, and he returned to his humble but devoted flock to spend the few remaining years of his life in their service. Mr. Gifford toiled away in his lonely home for over ten years, and being broken down with rheumatism, the result of his continued exposure in that rigorous climate, he had to seek relief by removing to a tropical country. At this period (1859), the Bishop gave a resume of his fifteen years' work. "Since 1846," he says, "we estab- lished nine new missions, four once served by school- masters, now served by missionary priests ; twenty- five or twenty-six churches finished and consecrated ; thirteen parsonages built or purchased ; a new stone church built in St. John's, with parsonage, and partly endowed ; College built, and partly endowed."
In 1857, it became known that there were a con- siderable number of English Church people living in White Bay on the French coast. The Bishop set out as soon as possible to see what could be done. He found a considerable number of people, many of whom had been here all their lives, and had never before seen a clergyman or heard a sermon. Many of them had been married by one of their number, who could read, going through the marriage service. They came now for the blessing of the Church at the Bishop's hands. Several children had been baptized
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by the one only fisherman in the neighbourhood who could read the Baptismal Service. They were either hypothetically baptized, or received into the Church. The poor people seemed to think that the validity of baptism depended upon the ability of the baptizer to read well. On one occasion when the clergyman asked, "By whom was this child baptized?" the answer was, " By John Bird, sir, and a fine reader he was." The Bishop was greatly distressed by the spiritual destitution of these poor people, and his inability to provide for them. At a public meeting held in St. John's, 1863, "he depicted," says Mr. Pilot, "in earnest words the destitute condition, temporal and spiritual, of the settlers whom he found here, but lamented the inability of the Church to meet the necessary stipend of a clergyman, even should one be found willing to go and labour among them. His words pierced the heart of one man present, who felt that the call had come to him to go, ' Here am I ; send me.' " This was the Rev. Robert Temple, then for three years the missionary at Ferryland. The story is soon told. Mr. Temple resigned his mission, and content to be paid in the heavenly treasure was sent to "White Bay, trusting to the people, under God, for his maintenance. This was a unique proceeding at that time for Newfoundland, though others have since followed in the same track. Mr. Temple had no private means, but he felt that he would the more readily gain the good-will and affections of his new charge if he threw himself unreservedly upon them for shelter, food, and raiment only ; and he was not mistaken. White Bay joins a part of the so- called French shore, and is deeply indented with coves and creeks on both sides. The mission itself extends along the shore for 150 miles, and has a population of 800 Church folk, the poorest of the poor in Newfoundland.
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When Mr. Temple arrived among them in 1864, there was no church, school, or building of any kind in which to hold service, and no parsonage ; his home and his work were together. Thirteen years he spent among these simple folk of White Bay, wearily plodding over ice and roadless rocks, rowing boats, sailing through fog and sleet ; spending nights and days amidst the rocks, stooping to the commonest domestic offices for his flock, dwelling in hovels not water-tight, bearing hunger and thirst, lack of raiment and lack of friends, with only the contemplation of the Cross to strengthen him, and the good-will of his scattered flock to encourage him. He was for years a houseless wanderer, carrying with him wherever he went his little all — his books and his parchment and his cloak— and all this he endured just simply as his work for the Master. After his first winter he wrote to Bishop Feild — " You will not be svirprised when I affirm my determination, under God's grace, to take the mission for better or worse, so long as the people desire to receive me." The places he had to supply were so many and so remote that he felt it useless to try to have a house of his own. He either lived in the houses of the fisher-folk, or got a little room erected alongside one or other of the many mission houses he got built. This saved all the expense of housekeeping. His entire income was about <£25 sterling (120 dollars a year), and he reports himself as quite satisfied, and able to live on it. He says he always found lodging and bed except when forced to encamp in an uninhabited cove, and to sleep by a watch-fire. After he had been some years in the mission he selected Western Cove, being the most central point for work, as the head-quarters of his mission. Here he got a neat little church erected, and hard by he built what was truly a " hermitage " for himself.
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By the assistance of friends interested in Mr. Temple's work, a small decked boat with a cabin was built for his comfort and convenience. This was his home for the greater part of the year. He was now able to visit his straggling flock with greater frequency and regularity.
In 1877, after thirteen years' voluntary exile, Mr. Temple was called to the charge of the important mission, Twiling-gate. In the following year he was appointed Rural Dean of Notre Dame Bay, which includes White Bay ; and his official visits enabled him every second year to see again the flock he once called his own. The mantle of this apostle of White Bay has fallen upon a worthy successor, the Rev. S. J. Andrews, whose unobtrusive labours bid fair to equal those of his predecessor.
The following biographical sketches, written by the Rev. T. W. Pilot, B.D., and the Rev. I. Hall, are given with no idea of making invidious comparisons, but merely as illustrations of the heroic self-sacrifice which animates the clergy of this, perhaps the hardest of colonial Dioceses. These records are not without their parallel in other parts of Newfoundland, nor in- deed in many another parish of the Colonial Church. Mr. Pilot writes of the Rev. Edward Colley—
"Hermitage Bay on the south of the island has been the scene of the labours of another pioneer of the Church, now grown old in the Master's service — the Rev. Edward Colley. Along its shores sweep the mighty Gulf Stream, which here meeting the cold waters from the Arctic regions, raises a fog blast, which perpetually broods over the great Atlantic Bank, and envelops the coast with a thick palpable cloud of driving mist. For weeks in summer the sun is hidden from view, and the atmosphere then becomes humid and depressing. The hills which surround the bay often rise perpendicularly out of
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the deepest water to a height of 1000 feet and more ; and storms violent, sudden, and destructive often overtake the wary fisherman. Over 3000 people have settled in the arms and coves of this bay, and of these 2500 are members of the Church. All depend for their subsistence upon the precarious fisheries ; if this fails, severe suffering ensues. They are for the most part an innocent, unsophisticated folk, from the southern counties of England. Un- contaminated with the vices which beset large centres of population, they live in their lodgments contented and happy. Nearly a century and a half ago their forefathers made these harbours their homes. A century ago a clergyman placed at Placentia paid them a summer visit ; but it was not till near the middle of the present century that a clergyman was placed permanently amongst them. Mr. Colley, after his ordination, was put in charge of Hermitage Mission, which embraced a coast-line of over 100 miles. The highway of trade here is the sea ; there are no roads. He had no boat of his own, and could only be conveyed from cove to cove by the fishermen's boats, reeking often with stale bait and unsavoury cod. His flock was located in over thirty different harbours, containing from two to twenty families. "With the exception of three shells of school-houses, there were no places for conducting service except the kitchens of the fishermen, gladly lent for the purpose. When Mr. Colley visited any settlement, the plan adopted was for the people of that cove to supply a boat and crew to convey him to his next port. The people of this station provided similar conveyance to the next, and so on around the mission. On each succeeding visit a fresh boat and crew were told off. In this way Mr. Colley became acquainted with all the men of his flock. His visits were always eagerly looked for, the wonted hospitality lovingly
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extended, and the best bed the settlement could boast of always ready for him. In some places a prophet's chamber was added to the side of the house, kept scrupulously clean, and always respectfully referred to as Mr. Colley's room. As the men were all day absent on the fishing-grounds, the only opportunity he had for assembling them for service was after the fish had been settled away and supper ended. Fisher- men go to bed early, and it was not to be wondered at that, being tired and weary with the labours of the day, many should during service succumb to sleep. Mr. Colley resolved to try a better plan. He rose at dawn with the men, and induced them to join in prayer before leaving for the fishing-grounds. By patient perseverance he got the whole population to fall in with his plan, until it became a standing order in every harbour, that during the parson's stay no boat should leave for the ground until after Morning Prayer. This grew into a general practice in every settlement, and was afterwards supplemented by an address, and the celebration of the Holy Communion.
Later on he persuaded them to hold Evensong before they retired. This became a second order in the settlement. It also became usual on his approach to any harbour with the Union Jack flying on the boat that conveyed him, for all fishing-boats to heave anchor, make for home, and get ready for Evensong.
For thirty years Mr. Colley continued, with only one brief interruption, in his noble work. His chief desire was to see a house of God erected in each of the nine populous places ; and by his exertions, aided by the willing hands and gifts of his flock, he was enabled to see it fulfilled in the erection of nine chapel schools and two consecrated churches. One of these is at Hermitage Cove, the head-quarters of the Mission, and was built by the liberality of T. N. Hunt, Esq., of London. It is a beautiful church of
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brick, faced with stone, and furnished throughout with oak fittings and stained-glass windows. Here Mr. Colley always said Matins at eight and Evensong at five, when at home.
In each of the settlements, where it was possible, a man was appointed to conduct Morning and Evening Prayer on Sundays during Mr. Colley's absence. When he returned, in 1867, there was hardly a Dis- senter in the Mission, and so it remains to-day.
BAY OF ISLANDS AND BONNEY BAY.
On the other side of the island, these two large bays, on what is now called the French shore, pierce the otherwise uniform boldness of the coast, and afford shelter and a home to nearly 3000 people, who have emigrated here from other parts of the island, in the expectation of finding greater facilities for making a living. In addition to the fishing, the people are largely engaged in lumbering. Nearly 2000 of them are members of the Church of England.
Bishop Feild made his first visit to these parts in 1863, but it was not till ten years later that a volun- teer could be found to undertake work in this newly- discovered field. This was the Rev. Ulric Zwinglius Rule, who volunteered under circumstances similar to those that induced Mr. Temple to go to White Bay — food and shelter only from the people. The people were for the most part a poor and illiterate class, and were scattered — a handful here and a few more there — in the numerous coves and arms that indent the bays on both sides. Mr. Rule had no boat, and so was obliged to move about as best he could from cove to cove by the chance boat of a fisherman, holding a service at one time in a log-hut, at another on the deck of a crazy boat.
In summer, in going from Bay of Islands to Bonney
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Bay (fifty miles), he was exposed to the rough and treacherous waters of the Gulf of St. Lawrence ; and in winter he took long journeys over wastes and snow, shod with mocassins and rackets. No devotee of a true or false religion ever threw himself with greater zeal or patience into his work than did Mr. Rule. His great desire was to form a brotherhood to work his extensive mission. This, from want of funds, he was unable to do ; and so, after ten years of pioneer work, be resigned his charge, having gained for himself the title of the St. Jerome of New- foundland.
His place was not long left vacant. God raised up one who was destined to accomplish great things for these poor people. This was
THE REV. JAMES CARLING,
a gentleman of rare attainments and gifts, of exceeding modesty and unbounded liberality. Trained to the life of a soldier, he became an officer in the Royal Engineers, and while in the station of Bermuda was aide-de-camp to Sir Frederick Chapman. He resolved to resign his commission and to take Holy Orders. After due preparation he was ordained by Bishop Feild, and became a noble example of self-sacrifice and devotion to his duties. Before his ordination, when the Church Star was wrecked and lost, Mr. Carling nobly gave his own yacht, the Lavrock, to be the future Church ship of Newfoundland. At his ordination to the Priesthood, in 1873, he was appointed to the Bay of Islands Mission. He at once adapted himself to his new and lonely life. For many months in the year he was cut off from the outer world, and exposed to hardships and privations almost inconceivable. He took the mission on the self-supporting principle, working upon the lines laid
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down by his predecessor. He was in journey ings oft, in perils in the wilderness and in perils in the sea, tending to the wants, temporal and spiritual, of his new inheritance. He spared no pains and relaxed no effort to show himself a soldier able to endure hardness. He made Birchy Head his head-quarters, completing and beautifying the shell of a church that had been erected there, and adding a school-house, parsonage, and Church Institute. He soon had, per- haps, the best-equipped mission station on the island.
At John's Beach, ten miles distant in the same bay, another church was erected, with school-house ; school-chapels were also built at the head of the bay at Summerside, Meadows Point, "Woods Island, and Lack Harbour, all bearing upon them the stamp of a liberal soul devising liberal things.
Nor was Bonney Bay less cared for. The same active spirit has been at work here, marked by the same liberality. Three churches, a parsonage, and five school-chapels have been built by Mr. Carling in the numerous coves of this bay. To plan, supervise, and provide funds for all these schools, parsonages, and churches involved no small amount of anxiety, self-denial, and toil. To enable him to keep up these manifold activities Mr. Carling employed a curate, and was fortunate in securing the services of men like-minded with himself.
In 1883, having with infinite toil secured a small endowment for the Bonney Bay Mission, it was separated and placed under the care of the Bev. Charles Holland, a former curate. This gave Mr. Carling more time to attend to his increasing flock at Bay of Islands, but neither his travels nor dangers were diminished. On one occasion, being overtaken by a snow-storm, he was compelled to spend a night in the woods alone, walking to and fro over a given space to keep himself from sleep, which would have
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ended in the sleep of death. At another time walk- ing along the beach — here the only highway which led from one settlement to another — he arrived at a spot which was steep and dangerous. The sea was too rough to go around the point near the edge of the rocks, and the cliff was too steep to climb up. Taking off his clothes and tying them up in a bundle upon his head, he struck out for a landing-place. The sea was rising high ; a huge wave caught and carried off his clothes. There was nothing left but to swim for them. He succeeded in clutching them and reaching the desired spot, but with everything soaked. Such occurrences were by no means uncommon in these hazardous missions.
In 1879, Mr. Carling was made Rural Dean of the Straits of Belle Isle. The duties of this new office required a biennial inspection, which involved a voyage in a straight line of over 700 miles. To enable him to accomplish this work, Mr. Carling built a schooner of fifty-seven tons ; he managed her himself. She became his home, and was the mes- senger of blessing to many forlorn and scattered fisher-folk.
After sixteen years of such constant toil and perseverance, Mr. Carling gave up the mission of Bay of Islands to prosecute his further studies at Oxford. He took his degree last year (1890), and on his return to the island has been appointed Principal of the Theological College in St. John's. He did not leave Bay of Islands until he had made the same permanent provision for the maintenance of the services of the Church as in Bonney Bay. His liberal benefactions have been distributed all around the country, and fortunate is the Bishop who has such a man in the ranks of his clergy.
Three missions of the Church of England at
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Forteau, at Battle Harbour, and at Esquimau! t Bay have been established on the coast of Labrador. Of the last-named place Mr. Pilot writes —
"The initiative in the work of providing these toilers of the deep with some measure of religious instruction and of the means of grace, was undertaken by the clergy of Conception Bay, and the Rev. Dr. Shears of Bay Roberts was the volunteer to carry it out. In the summer of 1878 he paid his first visit to these neglected shores, which involved a journey of 700 miles. He visited every cove and creek for a stretch of 500 miles in small boats, often manned by himself alone. It was literally a voyage of discovery ; it had been an unknown land. Nine hundred people were found who still clung to the Church of their fathers. They received Mr. Shears with enthusiasm, and many followed him from harbour to harbour, not willing to miss an opportunity they feared they might never have again of hearing the Gospel from the lips of a duly commissioned ambassador. He preached twice every day, sometimes oftener. Here and there he found a man who had brought with him across the sea some rudiments of religious knowledge and duty, and who had been in the habit of assembling his neighbours on Sunday, and going through the Church Service with them ; but such cases were extremely rare. During the first season Mr. Shears baptized 157 old and young, and married with the Church's blessing many couples who had been joined together by some planter or trader able to read.
"For four years he continued this work, finding ample reward for his toil in the hearty welcome he everywhere received. This work in our most northernly station was carried on under the present Bishop of Newfoundland."
The Rev. Mr. Hall writes generally of the work in this region — " To a traveller setting foot for the first
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time in Labrador the epithet ' desolate ' is a mild description of its appearance. "Why people should settle themselves in such parts may seem a mystery, but they do reside there, and it is above all things necessary that the Gospel of Grace should reach them. We can hardly wonder that the appearance of the clergyman amongst such people, even at rare intervals, would be hailed with delight. To the settlers the parson is everything ; their adviser in temporal as well as spiritual matters, doctor, lawyer, arbitrator in disputes, and in the best and truest sense their friend. They feel it and acknowledge it. Their habits are simple and their vices are few. Unbounded hospitality is the rule all along the shore. Every traveller puts up wherever he can reach shelter, and food for man and dogs is ungrudgingly provided, but only to be reciprocated when their own turn comes. This unstinted provision is in most cases of the coarsest and most simple kind, but it is the best that can be afforded.
" Along these coasts the missionary travels ; roads there are none, nor bridges, except those provided by nature over frozen rivers and brooks. If a journey is taken during the month or two which is called summer, it is to climb- hill and cross marshes into which the foot sinks deep at every step, or to ford brooks which by frequently recurring freshets are rapidly turned into roaring torrents. If the journey be accomplished by boat, then it is amidst signal danger from fog and ice, tide and heavy sea. Storms come up so rapidly that at every season of the year travelling is attended with danger.
" In winter the general mode of travel is on snow- shoes, or with dogs. These dogs are of a most savage and wolfish kind, and great is the danger if they scent any one in the woods near by, or espy him or her on their track. Drivers themselves are often in
EASTERN CANADA AND NEWFOUNDLAND. Ill
danger of being bitten by their dogs. As a rule they are only given one meal, and will travel sixty miles a day over a smooth surface. By their means the missionary undertakes his long journeys, up hill and down dale, over jutting precipices, skirting forests, across frozen bays and rivers.
" It is a difficult task to imagine or describe such a life. The intense cold often brings on hunger and faint i) ess, when to lie down is to die. On arriving at some wretched little tilt, fatigued and half starved, the clergyman will share whatever the family has on hand. It may be a little weak tea, or, on a rare occasion, salt pork, and dough balls of flour boiled with salt meat.
" Extra beds are rarities, and a night on a locker with insufficient covering, in a little studded house, where you can see the sky between the studs where the moss has fallen out, has to be experienced to be understood ; exposure and travel, storm and drift, poor living, and above all, the awful sense of isolation, are enough to try the constitution and spirit of the bravest."
MISSION OF FORTEAU.
The lonely spot in Labrador, where the Eev. A. Gifford was left by Bishop Feild, is now called Flower Cove Mission, from the missionary residing on the Newfoundland shore. It is 170 miles in extent ; 140 miles of the south coast of England, and thirty miles of the north coast of France, with the Channel between, will convey but a very inadequate idea of the extent of this cure of souls. The land being so broken and deeply indented with bays, and the settlements in many instances being at the head of them, measurement in miles affords only an imperfect idea of life and travel on such a coast. The mission- ary must have his head-quarters on one side or other
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of the Strait of Belle Isle, and the hardy fisherman, born to face drift and storm, is fain to acknowledge that the man who attempts to cross these straits in open boat is never certain that he shall reach the opposite shore. Owing to the rapid tide the straits never freeze, but except during a couple of months termed summer, innumerable pieces of floating ice are born to and fro upon the surface. The climate is very fickle ; snow-storms and hurricanes of wind in winter, and rain-storms in summer are frequent. To this mission the Rev. E. Botwood was appointed in 1860, as successor to Mr. Gifford.
Mr. Botwood had turned aside from lucrative pros- pects in the legal profession to devote his life to mission work in perhaps the hardest Diocese in the English Church, and he solicited one of the hardest posts in it. After considerable hesitation, because of the trials he knew to be in store for him, Bishop Eeild appointed him for six months to Forteau. But at the expiration of that time he begged to be continued, and remained for three years more, en- countering with cheerful alacrity the perils of his post.
In 1885, the present Bishop of Newfoundland de- termined to establish a permanent mission at the most northernly point of Labrador yet reached, and the Rev. F. W. Colley volunteered for the post. This seemed to offer only dangers, hardships, and priva- tions, for in addition to the same cruising in crazy boats, there was the toil of visiting the settlers in their winter quarters up the bays. These could only be reached by journeys over barren wastes with dogs. For two years he bravely endured all, and was only induced to relinquish his post when enfeebled health rendered a change imperative. He was succeeded by another volunteer, the Bev. T. P. Quinton, who was a man of iron constitution, and has proved himself
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able to endure hardness as a good soldier of the Cross, in the mission of Charnel, on the south-west angle of the island. He still holds the fort, and with a courage and spirit born of a message inspired, has toiled with unabating vigour for four years. Never does he appear happier than when careering with his team of clogs over ice and snow, to visit the scattered sheep of his extensive flock, making light of his hardships and privations. Writing in May of his second year's residence he says — " For nearly five months I have been on the move, and I have walked over fourteen hundred miles, yet the work is not by any means disagreeable or of an unsatisfactory nature." And this after stating that the winter was very severe, and that many a night they lay in their fur bags. " My good spirits have not left me, and the bad ones are as near me, I fear, as ever."
Referring to his privations, and the expected arrival of a supply of food by the first steamer in June, he says — " I can hold out two or three days more by liberally watering the little tea I have left. Of flour I have sufficient for myself, but we know not when we are likely to get a fresh supply." This was after eight months of isolation, and yet he says — " I have very little to frighten me, and I would as soon be here as in any boating mission in Newfoundland. As regards the loneliness, I don't mind ; I have not allowed it a footing in my thoughts, and as a conse- quence the time has sped rapidly away. But when the mail comes from Newfoundland I shall do nothing but read my letters for a week."
Referring to his work he says — " After all, how little one can do for these poor creatures ! In all, at the outside, I can only visit some of them twice in the year, and some of them hardly that in some years." There are no churches in the mission; the services are held in the settlers' houses. Small
H
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school -chapels have, however, lately heen erected .in three or four of the bays.
Amid such scenes and perils, and with a band of many such noble fellow-workers, Bishop Feild con- tinued his labours till 1866, when Bishop Kelly being appointed coadjutor, undertook a large share of the more difficult and dangerous work. After this date Bishop Feild visited Bermuda every winter, and now remained in these sunny islands for a much longer period than when he was alone. He gave the most careful individual attention to the affairs of the Church in that part of his extensive charge. Twice after Bishop Kelly's appointment he visited the far- off missions of Labrador, and the northern and western coasts. Touching stories are told of the way in which the Bishop, with the most brotherly alacrity, supplied the place of invalided or worn-out workers both in Newfoundland and Bermuda. Bishop Kelly was an eloquent speaker, and an earnest co-worker, and so he relieved Bishop Feild of a large share of responsibility and toil.
The Coadjutor was not so fortunate as Bishop Feild had been in all his perilous voyaging. For twenty-five years the Hawk had gone through fog and foam, through frost and fateful hurricane almost without a mishap ; but just at the end of her long voyaging she was ran twice upon the rocks, and was condemned as unseaworthy. Her place was supplied, as above narrated, • by the generosity of Lieut. Carling (afterwards the Bev. James Carling). Before long this splendidly fitted up yacht was utterly wrecked, and Bishop Kelly and his party were with great difficulty saved.
Bishop Feild, in order to relieve the Bev. J. C. Harvey of Port-de-Grace, who had to go to England for medical treatment, took charge of his parish. It was a terribly severe winter. The Bishop performed
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with more than usual punctuality the duties of a mission that would have tried the energies of a young man. The result was a very severe illness when he returned to St. John's ; from this he never really rallied. In the autumn he again visited Ber- muda, hut the genial climate did not produce the hoped-for change, and on June 8th, 1876, calmly, and with no appearance of pain, his spirit passed behind the veil.
Bishop Kelly without election succeeded to the see. He was an able and eloquent man, but was not adapted to a maritime Diocese like Newfoundland. He was a poor sailor, and never got over distressing sea-sicknesses. Being persuaded that this was going to permanently hinder and perhaps finally destroy his usefulness, he resigned his see and returned to England in 1878.
The appointment of a successor was referred to the authorities at home, and the present Bishop, the Right Rev. L. Jones, who was already widely known throughout the Church as a scholar and successful parish organizer and worker, was called to bear the standard which Bishop Feild had made glorious as the symbol of faith and courage and self-denial and loving, persevering energy.
For now thirteen years, without noise or com- plaint, he has made it his aim and his joy to follow the example of his great predecessor. He is a man of exceeding modesty and gentleness, but of unsparing energy. He has won the hearts of his clergy and people, and is no doubt laying up in store for himself an abundant entrance and a great reward. He de- clines to give any information about himself and his work. He says — " Bishop Feild had laid the founda- tions so well, and had everything so well ordered, that all I have to do is to follow in his steps and try to realize his plans."
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One of the foremost of his clergy writing of him says — " He shares with his clergy their perilous work, and no less than his predecessor is enkindled with the same spirit of zeal for his Diocese. Though hampered for want of funds, and beset on all sides with cries of chronic poverty, he has done much to forward the work of the Church in Newfoundland. Improvements, material and spiritual, are manifest in all directions.
" His cathedral, enlarged at a cost of 200,000 dollars, as a memorial of his predecessor, Bishop Feild, stands unrivalled in this Western hemisphere as a gem of Gothic architecture. Churches of a superior style and finish are fast taking the place of the old un- sightliness of the early Newfoundland type. The clerical staff has been steadily increasing in number. New missions have been opened, and curates have been provided to assist in the large missions already established. A generous response, in spite of hard times and failing fisheries, has been made to appeals for aid to carry on the Church work throughout the Diocese ; in spite too of the fact that the S. P. G. has during his Episcopate reduced its grant by £1000 a year."
Newfoundland, dependent merely upon precarious fisheries, must ever be a poor Diocese, relying largely upon the generous sympathy and help of the Mother Church.
We have devoted to the history of the Church in this Diocese a disproportionate share of the space allowed us, partly because of the thrilling and heroic incidents with which it abounds, and partly, chiefly rather, because the clergy have exhibited throughout the spirit of self-sacrifice and heroic Christian faith which will have to become the incentive to action and the rule of life throughout this whole continent, if the Church is ever to occupy the waste places, and recover the ground which, through lack of them, she has lost.
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CHAPTER V.
THE DIOCESE OP TORONTO.
The Diocese of Toronto, embracing the whole of Upper Canada — the present Province of Ontario, and whatever might be to the west of it — was constituted, in 1839, out of the Diocese of Quebec. The opera- tions of the Church in this Diocese up to the time of the appointment of the first Bishop have therefore been detailed in the history of Quebec. Its history for the next thirty years is so completely identified with the life of its first great Bishop, that it can only be thought of in connection with him.
He was in the strictest sense its Head-Centre, the fons et origo of all its activities. He moulded its doctrines, and he directed its energies. Nil sine Episcopo was not an abstract theory, but a concrete necessity, from one end of his vast Diocese to the other. The man who presumed to act without his Bishop, much more to act against him, soon found himself in the grasp of the hand of one who said, " This is the way ; walk ye in it." In illustration of this characteristic, the writer has heard the Bev. Edmund Baldwin, curate of St. James' Cathedral, complaining that he and the Bector, who were both pronounced Evangelicals, were very hardly treated. He said, " Whenever we preach any distinctively Evangelical doctrine, the Bishop always says when
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we reach the vestry, 'I will prach' (broad Scotch) 'next Sunday.' Then he was sure to say with reference to what we had preached, ' This is what some people think, but this is the way the matter is to be under- stood.' And then he would proceed to give the orthodox Anglican doctrine in a way that could not be mistaken."
Bishop Strachan was a man born to rule. Clear- headed, resolute, unhesitating, energetic, high-tem- pered, he took the lead without any arrogant assump- tion in every company where he came. No man has yet arisen amongst us of such commanding personality, or who has so impressed himself upon the history of the Church or indeed of the country. It is therefore necessary to have before us a brief outline of his history if we would study intelligently the times in which he lived.
He was born at Aberdeen, Scotland, on the 12th April, 1778, of humble but respectable parents. His father, who was superintendent of a stone-quarry, was killed at the age of fifty-two, by a premature explosion. He was a man of resolute will, who, living in the midst of Presbyterians, was a persistent Non- juror. His mother was a Presbyterian, a woman of great character and controlling religious principles. It is stated as a strange instance of the survival of ancient traditions, that she used to make the children sign themselves with the sign of the Cross before going to bed.
The future Bishop was only fourteen years old when his father was killed. He was thrown upon the world at that age without a single friend or relative capable of affording him any assistance. His mother and two sisters were reduced almost to actual want, and had no one to look to but him. He obtained a position as tutor, and carried his earnings as he received them with a delighted heart to his
EASTERN CANADA AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 119
mother. He was so successful and so saving that we find him entered as a student at Aberdeen when he was only sixteen years old. The annual session of this University only lasted five months ; during the rest of the year he earned enough by teaching to maintain himself at College, and to afford such assistance to his mother and sisters as enabled them to live. He graduated in the regular course, and then obtained the mastership of a school, which maintained him and those dependent on him till he emigrated to Canada. He became the intimate friend of Dr. Chalmers, and through his influence was invited to come to Canada to establish a school under the patronage of the Government, which should after- wards grow into a College, and ultimately into a University. He reached Kingston, then the chief town of Upper Canada, in August 1799. only to meet with bitter disappointment. The projected academy was found to be only a vague theory, which never really took shape. Mr. Strachan was so "beat down," as he expressed it, that if he could have procured the money he would at once have returned to Scotland. This was out of the question, and so he accepted the position of tutor in the family of Mr. Richard Cartwright. He became the friend of Dr. Stuart, Rector of Kingston and official of the Bishop of Quebec in Upper Canada ; through his influence he was led to seek for admission to the ministry, and was ordained Deacon by the Bishop of Quebec on the 22nd May, 1803. He was at once appointed to Cornwall. This was regarded as an important and rising place, and yet Mr. Strachan' s clerical income was only £130 per annum, not enough, as he stated, to enable him to keep house and extend the needed help to his loved mother, and so he began taking pupils into his house, and thus originated the famous Cornwall School, at which almost every man of dis-
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tinction in Upper Canada during the last generation was educated. Dr. Strachan, as he had now become, remained in charge of his successful school and parish at Cornwall until 1812, when York (Toronto) be- coming vacant, he reluctantly accepted the position, at the solicitation of all the leadiug men of the "Western Capital. Amongst the most urgent of these was the ever-to-be-honoured Major- General Sir Isaac Brock.
During that year, and before Dr. Strachan's removal from Cornwall, the American Government, contrary to the universal expectation of thoughtful men, declared war against Ed gland.
The journey from Cornwall to Toronto, a distance of 300 miles, was naturally very difficult and tedious, but now it became dangerous as well. The Americans soon gained 'the ascendancy on Lake Ontario, and as the schooner which carried the future Bishop and his family to Toronto was crossing the lake, a sail was seen one morning bearing down upon her. All on board were quite sure that she was an armed American cruiser. The captain became very terri- fied, and went to consult Dr. Strachan about sur- rendering the ship at once. The doctor asked if he had any weapons or means of defence. He said, " Yes ; we have a four-pounder, and several muskets and swords ; but we will be overpowered at once, we must surrender." The Bishop said, " No, we must fight ; give me a sword." The captain said he could not fight. " Then," the Bishop said, " you go down below and take care of the ladies, and I will command the ship." The timid captain gladly acceded to the proposal, and Dr. Strachan set to work to get all the men he could collect, armed and ready for the fight, when lo ! it was discovered that she was not an American cruiser, but a British schooner that was bearing down upon them.
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"And well it was for us," the Bishop adds in detailing the story, "for the four-pounder was fastened to the deck, and it pointed to the starboard, whereas the schooner came to us on the larboard bow."
York (Toronto) was at this time a little town of only a few hundred inhabitants. The houses were all of wood, and of very unpretending dimensions. Seven years later the population did not exceed 1000, and there were only three small brick houses in the place then.
The land was shaken and dismayed by the actual outbreak of war ; everybody was downcast, until General Brock arrived on the scene. His presence acted like magic. His collected courage in the presence of the overwhelming forces that the enemy were gathering on the frontier for the conquest of the country, his alertness, his energy, his promptly formed and definite plans of defence, inspired the land with a new hope and a determined courage. He evidently believed " that the best defence was offence," and in less than three weeks he had carried his little army 300 miles through the woods, surprised and captured Fort Detroit, scattered the American army gathering there, and was back again to face the foe gathering on the Niagara River for the conquest of Central Canada. At the battle of Queenstown Heights he fell mortally wounded early in the day, but he had inspired the troops with such fearless courage and energy that nothing could withstand them. They swept the greatly superior forces of the Ameri- cans like chaff before the wind over the Queenstown Heights, and what was left of them out of tbe country. Dr. Strachan was not idle. Burning with love of his country, and full of indignation at the unrighteous aggression on the part of the Americans, he was active and judicious in his 'counsels. He was also
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the chief agent in starting and conducting what was called " The Loyal and Patriotic Society of Upper Canada," which had branches all through the Province, and was most generously supported. Its object was to afford relief to the wounded of the militia and volunteers, to aid in the support of the widows and orphans of the slain, and to assist the families of those who were called out on military duty. In the winter of 1814 the funds of the Society exceeded £10,000, and an appeal to the British nation was warmly and liberally met. This Society is said to have contributed more towards the defence of the country than many regiments, by the confidence and good-will it inspired amongst the population at large. Early the next spring the Americans attacked the town of York with a flotilla of fourteen vessels, and a force which was quite overwhelming in numbers. After a brief and badly conducted defence, the small regular army retreated towards Kingston, and left the town and the militia to their fate. Further resistance was useless, and Dr. Strachan was sent as chief of a deputation of citizens to arrange with the American officers the terms of capitulation. These articles were accepted, but were disregarded by many officers of the conquering army. Dr. Strachan there- fore demanded to be taken on board the ship where General Dearborn was. The Doctor says — " I met him coming on shore, and presented him with the articles of capitulation. He read them without deigning an answer. I requested him to let me know whether he would parole the officers and men, and demanded leave to take away our sick and wounded. He treated me with great harshness, and told me we had given a false estimate of officers. He told me to keep off, and not to follow him, as he had business of much greater importance to attend to. I complained of this treatment to Commodore Chauncey, who had
EASTERN CANADA AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 123
command of the flotilla, and declared that if the capitulation were not immediately signed, we would not receive it, and affirmed that the delay was a deception, calculated to give the riflemen time to plunder, and that after the town had been robbed they would then perhaps sign the capitulation, and tell us that they respected private property ; but that we were determined that they should not have it in their power to say they respected private pro- perty after it had been stolen. Upon saying this I broke away." Those who knew the Bishop can picture the commanding and righteous indignation with which it was done.
; " Soon after this," he says, " General Dearborn came into the room, and being told what I had said, settled the matter amicably." He continues, "We spent the whole of Thursday the 29th in removing the sick and wounded, and getting comforts for them."
On the following day the Government buildings were set on fire, contrary to the articles of capitula- tion, and the church was robbed. " I called a meeting of the judges and magistrates, drew up a short note stating our grievances, and waited upon General Dearborn with it. He was greatly embarrassed, and promised everything."
This extract sufficiently exhibits Dr. Strachan's activity and fearless courage, and explains the chival- rous regard in which he was ever afterwards held.
The next year the war closed, and other scenes opened.
MCGILL COLLEGE.
The. Hon. James McGill of Montreal, a kinsman of Dr. Strachan, bequeathed £10,000, together with several acres of land and a spacious and substantial
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'dwelling-house, for the purpose of establishing a University for the education of the English-speaking youth of that city and province. It was at first a Churchjof Engjand^^stitution, and so Dr. Strachan wasTamecr a'^trustee'_oT-^hTs munificent bequest, with an intimation of Mr. McG-ill's desire that he should be the first Principal of the College when established.
Owing to family litigation it was so long before the College could be started, that Dr. Strachan was in such a position that he could not entertain the dying request of his friend.
In 1820,^ Sir Peregrine Maitland appointed Dr. Strachan, without previous consultation, he says, to a seat in the Legislative Council, assigning as a reason that it was necessary for him to have some confi- dential person through whom to make communica- tions. This appointment involved some pecuniary loss, as Dr. Strachan had to resign the chaplaincy of the Council. It no doubt increased his influence in all secular matters, but it also brought with it many of the worst troubles and fiercest assaults which harassed him in the coming years.
There was at that time only one square wooden church, 66 x 60 feet, in Toronto. The communicants numbered only sixty, the Sunday-school eighty ; the whole population, however, only numbered about 1200. The vicious system of raising money for the building or enlargement of churches by selling the fee-simple of pews was then in vogue, and the church of St. James had lately been enlarged at the cost of £2700 on this principle. The deadening effects of this evil heritage are felt to this day in that con- gregation ; the proprietary rights then created are still maintained. There was at this time but a mere sprinkling of clergymen throughout Upper Canada, though the members of the Church bore a large pro-
EASTERN CANADA AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 125
portion to the general population, and everywhere its ministrations were very cordially accepted. Neither the Presbyterians nor the "Roman Catholics had any place of worship in the town. The Methodists, how- ever, had a large chapel and were very active.
On going west from Toronto, the first clergyman you came to was the Rev. Mr. Miller at Ancaster, forty miles away. In the Niagara Peninsula there were three, viz. at Niagara, Chippewa, and Grimsby ; then going westward yon found none until you reached Amherstburg and Sandwich, a distance of over 200 miles. All the rest of that vast district, now com posing the Dioceses of Huron, Niagara, and Algoma, was utterly without the ministration of the Church.
Then going eastward from Toronto there was no clergyman till you reached Cobourg. To the north of this, another was settled at Cavan, then a blank until Bellville was reached. Then Bath and Kingston, then a blank to Brockville on one side and Perth on the other. The next was at Williamsburg, and the last at Cornwall. There were besides, a chaplain to the forces stationed at Niagara, a chaplain to the navy at Kingston, and a clergyman in charge of the Grammar School there ; sixteen in all to supply the needs of a population scattered over a territory larger than England, Wales, and Scotland.
THE CLERGY RESERVE.
The origin and object of the Clergy Preserve lands have been described in the history of the Diocese of Quebec. In the Act constituting the Province of Upper Canada, it was expressly provided that one- seventh of all the land of the Province should be reserved for the support and maintenance of a Protestant clergy.
Fierce disputes before long arose about the meaning
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of the term " Protestant clergy," and then about the legality of the title, or the right of the Crown to make such grants. Twice Dr. Strachan was sent to England to defend the rights of the Church. That defence called forth the most furious attacks upon him in the newspapers of the day, at the hustings, and in the legislative halls of the country. The most slanderous accusations with regard both to his public and private life were whispered in secret, and proclaimed upon the housetops. He made no reply, and in answer to his friends, who called upon him to vindicate his character and show the falsity of the accusations, which he could easily have done, he still replied, "If my life, lived so many years before the public, is not enough to silence such slanders, then Avords will only be wasted. Besides," he used to say, " such unrestrained abuse is sure to create sympathy and a reaction of feeling in favour of one so un- justly assailed. In all my affairs I have one simple principle to guide me, which is an honest desire to do as well as I can, and leave the result to God. These calumnies, therefore, pass me like the idle wind, and I turn for them neither to the right nor to the left " The battle raged about this cpaestion with increasing fury, till it was finally settled as already described in 1854.
THE UNIVERSITY.
Scarcely less fierce was the conflict over the Uni- versity. Dr. Strachan had come, as we have seen, to this country with the prospect and promise of the establishment of a University. His first disappoint- ment has already been detailed. It was followed by long years of hope deferred. In 1826, he was sent as a special envoy to England to urge the immediate establishment of a Cauadian University.
EASTERN CANADA AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 127
He came back with a royal charter and certain grants in money. It was said to be the most liberal charter that bad ever been granted, as no religious tests were required for matriculation or graduation except in divinity, in which department the rule of Oxford was observed ; a religious basis of education was retained, and the control of the institution was entrusted to the Established Church of the Empire. It was there- fore enacted that the seven Professors should be members of the Church of England, and the President a clergyman of that Church. Dr. Strachan had in the meantime been made Archdeacon of York, and the charter constituted him permanent President of the projected College. This naturally awakened the determined opposition of all who were not members of the Church of England. The strife daily grew hotter, and resulted in no action being taken for a long time to carry out the provisions of the charter. Then Sir John Colborne, on his arrival as Governor, questioned the advisability of establishing this highest seat of learning while the preliminary education of the country was so defective. He urged that qualified pupils for the curriculum of a University would not be obtained. This led to the establishment of Upper Canada College, which in one year after Sir John's arrival in the country, was in actual operation with an efficient staff of masters. It became an immediate success, and has retained the foremost place amongst Canadian institutions of the Grammar School type ever since. Like the projected University, it was practically a Church of England institution. Its earlier masters were, for the most part, members of the Church of England, and though it has long since been wholly secularized, it has retained up to the present time some shadow of the Church's tradition in its daily worship.
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THE PLAGUE OF I 1832X
The A.siatic_cholera, of whose terrors in Quebec and Montreal an account has been given, reached Toronto early in the same summer, 1832. The large emigra- tion of that year, amounting to over 50,000 people, passed for the most part into Western Canada. The distance from Quebec to Toronto was so great (600 miles), that the pittance with which some of the emigrants came was soon exhausted, and they reached Toronto, for the most part, in a penniless condition. " The terrible disease," the Bishop writes, " attacked them as they journeyed thither ; many died on the way, others were landed in various stages of the disease, and many were seized after they came amongst us. In short, York became one general hospital. We had a large building fitted up for the reception of patients, but the cases were so numerous that many could not be conveyed to it, and remained at their own homes or lodgings. It is computed that one-fourth of the adults of this town were attacked, and that one-twelfth of the whole population died. Our duty brought us into the midst of this calamity. Unfortunately my assistant was attacked a day or two after the disease appeared among us, and became so nervous that I could not send him to the cholera hospital. The whole therefore fell upon me, and often have I been in the malignant ward with six or eight expiring around me. The foulness of the air too was overpowering at times, but I have always, by the blessing of God, found my nerves equal to the occasion, and it seemed as if this summer I was stronger than usual, and fully equal to the increase of labour thrown upon me. The disease has now almost entirely ceased, but it has left many blanks in our society, and, what is still more painful,
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about 100 widows and 400 children, all strangers in a strange land, and dependent upon the charity of those amongst whom the Providence of God has thrown them."
The land was full- of the praises of Archdeacon Strachan for his wonderful courage, energy, and kindness during the continuance of this terrible scourge. The inhabitants presented him with a grateful address, and a piece of plate costing £100, "as a memorial of their respect and gratitude for his fearless and humane devotion to his pastoral duties, during seasons of great danger and distress from the visitation of an appalling pestilence."
THE RECTORIES.
The strife about the Rectories occupies almost as prominent a place in the annals of the country and of the Church as the dispute about the Clergy Reserves. It was, in fact, a part of the same discussion. What were called the Clergy Reserves were created, as we have seen, by the reservation of one-seventh of the unappropriated land of Upper and Lower Canada, for the support of a " Protestant Clergy." But as these lands, which were managed by the Government, were yielding but very little revenue to the Church, it was therefore suggested by Sir John Colborne, the Governor of Upper Canada, and concurred in by the Imperial Government, that two Rectories should be established in each township (the townships averaged about twelve miles square), and that 400 acres out of the Clergy Reserves should be conveyed to the incumbents of these Rectories, to hold in trust for the purpose of ensuring the future comfort if not the complete maintenance of the Rectors. It was deter- mined to establish in the settled townships at once
i
ISO HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN
fifty-seven such Rectories. The actual endowment however of forty-four only was completed.
This appropriation became another grievance, and was made an election cry. Fierce and long was the fight about the validity of these titles. This was finally set at rest by an appeal to the Courts, which pronounced in favour of the validity, and secured thus much of the Reserves to the Church of England. These lands are now administered by the Synods, and the incomes derived from them are distributed on a fixed scale among the Incumbents of the several parishes now existing, or that may hereafter be established, in the municipalities thus endowed.
Both the reservation of land and the endowment of Rectories was stopped at the withdrawal of Sir John Colborne from the Government of the Province.
FOUNDATION OF THE SEE OF TORONTO.
Dr. Stewart, Bishop of Quebec, it will.; be remem- bered, died in 1837, and Dr. Mountain, who had been consecrated as his coadjutor under the title of Bishop of Montreal, succeeded to the charge of the whole Diocese, including Upper and Lower Canada. This revived the project, long before entertained, of dividing that vast jurisdiction, and constituting each Province into a separate Diocese. Sir Francis Head, the Governor, warmly seconded the proposal ; the Arch- bishop of Canterbury willingly gave his consent. It was distinctly announced, however, that the Home Government would not, as had been the custom up to this time, provide any endowment or give any pecuniary assistance whatever. Archdeacon Strachan, however, who, it was well known among those who controlled such appointments at that time, would be selected for the new See, informed the Colonial Secretary that the matter of salary need form no
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impediment to an immediate appointment of a Bishop for Upper Canada, as he would be content to remain in that respect exactly as he now was, till the per- plexing question of the Clergy Reserves should be settled, when it would be in the power of Her Majesty's Government to make another and more satisfactory arrangement. ■
In addressing the Governor, Sir George Arthur, Feb. 20th, 1839, the Archdeacon says —
" In making this proposal I can with truth assure you that I am by no means insensible to the propriety as well as the necessity of granting adequate provision for the decent support of the Episcopal office in this rising colony, but persuaded that the interests of the Church are suffering from the want of this Episcopal superintendence, which has for some time been earnestly desired by many of her members, and unani- mously by the clergy, I thought my proposition might accelerate the removal of that want by a few years, and thus promote in no small degree the salutary influence of Christian doctrine throughout the Province."
This proposal opened the way for an immediate appointment, and accordingly, in the summer of 1839, Archdeacon Strachan was appointed by the Crown, and in August of that year was consecrated by the Archbishop of Canterbury as first Bishop of Toronto. At the same time the Hon. and Reverend Dr. Spencer was consecrated the first Bishop of the Diocese of Newfoundland. The Bishop of Toronto reached his home on the 9th of Sept., 1839, and was welcomed with great joy and affection.
Early the next spring, 1840, the Bishop began his first visitation of his Diocese, which stretched for more than 400 miles along the lake and river frontage, and ran back for about the same distance into the as yet unexplored forest. The most remote mission
132 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN
was distant about 300 miles from Toronto ; but from tbe necessity of diverging in many cases from the main road to reach the several congregations, the amount of travelling was very much increased. From the 24th of May till the end of Oct. the Bishop was engaged, with three intermissions not exceeding ten days in all, in constant travel. Before he ceased he had visited almost every parish and mission in his Diocese. Dr. Strachan was sixty-one years of age when he was consecrated, and yet but very few men in the vigour of youth could have endured the toils and the mental strain of that five months of con- tinuous labour, with health unimpaired and spirits unbroken. The amount of travelling was enormous, not less than 10,000 miles. It was all performed in an open vehicle. The roads in many cases were ex- tremely rough, stony or swampy, with miles of "corduroy," or log bridges over swamps, without any covering of earth. Over these the carriages jolted violently and moved at a snail's pace, while the fare every clay and the accommodation every night were of the coarsest and rudest character. These trials were of a bodily nature, but the mental strain must have been very great. The Bishop held one, and generally two, confirmations every clay. On these occasions he always preached, and then after the confirmation addressed the confirmees at great length, giving doctrinal instruction and practical direction of a very detailed character both to parents and to children.
The Bishop held his primary visitation in Toronto, Sept. 1841 ; there were then eighty-six clergymen in the Diocese, nine of whom had been ordained by himself. Among other topics discussed in his charge, he gave a brief sketch of the history of the Church in the Diocese. He said —
" For many years after its first settlement as the
EASTERN CANADA AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 133
favourite asylum of suffering loyalty, there was but one clergyman of the Church of England, the Rev. Dr. Stuart, within its extensive limits. Even at the commencement of 1803, the Diocese contained only four clergymen, for it was in the spring of that year that I made the fifth. In 1819, the clergy of this Province had increased to ten; in 1825, they had risen to twenty-two ; in 1827, to thirty; in 1833, to forty-six ; and now our number is about ninety. Still our spiritual wants are many. More than forty missionaries could at this moment be most usefully employed, and earnest applications are daily being made to me from various villages and townships for resident clergymen. In passing through the Diocese T beheld the clergy everywhere active and laborious, living in good feeling and harmony among themselves and with their flocks, seeking out our people in the wilderness, forming them into congregations and parishes, and extending on every side the foundations of the Church."
THEOLOGICAL COLLEGE, COBOURG.
There was such persistent opposition and conse- quent delay in carrying out the life-long aim of Bishop Strachan for the establishment of a University for the higher education of the clergy and people, that it was determined to found the Theological College at Cobourg, under Dr. A. N. Bethune. At this institution about fifty of the clergy of that period were educated.
KING'S COLLEGE UNIVERSITY.
The long-deferred hopes were, however, realized at last, and Sir Charles Bagot, the newly-appointed Governor, laid the corner-stone of King's College on
134 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN
the 3rd April, 1842. This was a great joy to the Bishop. The University for which he had toiled so long and endured so much was at last begun. The joy, however, was short-lived. The past mutterings of discontent revived at once. There was undisguised jealousy of the Church of England, and this feeling never slumbered till it affected the complete seculariz- ation of the University in 1848, only six years after its foundation.
THE CHURCH SOCIETY.
In less than a week after the foundation of the University was laid, another important step was taken in the organization of the Church Society, which occupied such a prominent place in the ex- tension of the Church throughout Ontario. For many years previous to this there were district branches of the S. P. C. K., and as far back as 1829 there was a Society established at Toronto, " for the civilization and conversion of the Indians, aDd for extending the ministrations of the Church among the destitute settlers of the Province." A good work was being accomplished by both these Societies, but it was thought best to concentrate all our Church work of this character in one organization. At the summons of the Bishop, a large number of the clergy and many of the most influential laymen of the Province assembled on the 28th April, 1842, and formally organized the Church Society. Similar organizations either had been or were soon formed in all the Canadian Dioceses, until Ontario led the way in making the Synod the central missionary organization of the Diocese. In this way the Church really became the great missionary organization which is surely the true view of her character.
EASTERN CANADA AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 125
THE BISHOP S JOURNEY.
The Bishop continued bis yearly confirmation tours through a considerable part of his Diocese till relieved of these onerous duties by the appointment of a coadjutor. These tours were so arranged that every parish and mission was visited at least once in three years.
In 1842, the Bishop set out to visit the most northernly part of his Diocese. After a journey of 120 miles, largely through the woods, the party reached Penetanguishene. After consecrating the church that had been erected here, they set out in canoes for Manitoulin Island, distant about 200 miles by the course they took. On the 29th July, they encamped on Fox Island amid pouring rain. They had great difficulty in pitching their tents. The wind and rain increased during the night. Three of the tents were blown down, and the inmates had to make the best of their way, in their night clothes, through the darkness to some of the other tents which withstood the storm.
"The encampment on the following evening," writes the Bishop, " was not a little picturesque. Nine tents were pitched, and as many fires lighted ; groups gathered around each fire, and as the darkness increased shadows went flitting from place to place ; while some of the men were seen rolled up in their blankets and sleeping on the bare rock. The party never dined until they stopped for the night. Some- times as late as nine o'clock, table-cloths were spread on the smoothest part of the rock, and the guests squatted around in Eastern fashion, with candles or lanterns to illuminate the feast. On the first night of the encampment it was found that one of the canoes was manned by converted Indians. Before
136 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN
going to rest they assembled and sang a hymn in their own language, and recited prayers which they had been taught. There was something indescribably touching in this service of praise to God upon these lonely rocks. The stillness, wildness, and darkness, combined with the sweet and plaintive voices, all contributed to the beauty and solemnity of the scene."
After holding confirmation at Manitowaning, the Bishop and his party left for the Sault Ste. Marie, distant about 150 miles. They did not reach their destination till the 14th August. Mr. McMurray, now Archdeacon of Niagara, was at the time in charge of this remote mission. Fifty candidates were confirmed, and then the party started for Makinac in the United States. Here they took steamer for the village of Sutherland, more than 300 miles away on the St. Clair River. The Bishop held confirmation at Sandwich, Amherstburg, Col- chester, and other places on the western frontier, and then visited the Indian mission of Muncy Town, under the charge of the Rev. J. Flood.
"The Indians," said the Bishop, "assembled in great numbers ; it was to be a great day, as the great Chippewa Chief was to be baptized and confirmed. There were still many pagan Indians in this settle- ment ; these, however, were all in the habit of attending the services of the Church. The con- version of the great Chief was expected to have a favourable effect upon those who were still pagans. The school-house, though large, could scarcely contain half the number assembled, and they stood in groups around the doors and windows. After his baptism the Chief and four others were confirmed."
The Bishop proceeded from thence to Goderich, and thence through the northern part of his Diocese back to Toronto, on the 3rd October, after a continued absence of nearly five months.
EASTEKN CANADA AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 137
Year after year, with unflagging energy, these confirmation tours were continued. The Bishop's journal, which is very full, is crowded with thrilling incidents ; but it is not possible within our limited space to give even an outline of these. A few illustrations taken from that journal will be sufficient to give a fair idea of what these long journeys in many cases implied.
In speaking of a journey from Chatham through the Talbot district, he says — " We had not pro- ceeded far before we found the sloughs frightful. Every moment we expected to stick fast or break clown. A thunderstorm came on, and the rain fell in such torrents as greatly to increase the difficulty. After labouring nine hours we stuck fast, about five o'clock, when witbin hnlf a mile of Talbot Bead. At length, taking out the horses, we left the wagon, with the baggage, in order to go to the nearest house for the night, distant nine miles. By this time it was six o'clock. The horses, almost killed with straining and pulling, could hardly walk. Another storm of thunder and lightning came on, and the narrow path overhung with branches became suddenly dark, and we could see no path, but were striking against the trees and one another. We contiuued to wander till nine o'clock, when we were forced to halt. Unfortunately we had no means of lighting a fire, notwithstanding the cold and wet ; and expect- ing to get to a house, we had nothing to eat or drink. There was no remedy but to sit quietly under the trees till morning. Till I fell into a serious train of thought the time seemed very long ; but after I became absorbed in meditation, time flew rapidly and the cold was forgotten."
Walpole Island, one of the most important Indian stations, seems to be a continuation of the shallows or flats of Lake St. Clair, and to have been formed
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from deposits from the upper lakes ; the soil is altogether alluvial, and the surface is so little raised above the river that the greater portion is covered with water when the lakes and rivers rise. This rising seems to take place periodically, although the exact cycle has not yet been ascertained. Speaking of his visit to this island in 1845, the Bishop says — " We made, after service, a hasty dinner with Mr. and Mrs. Keating, and as it was by this time getting dark and threatening rain, we hurried to get across to the main shore. -In our haste we did not perceive, till we had cast off from the main land and were in the stream, that our canoe was too small for our number, and the water within an inch of the edge. Had there been any wind we should have been in the greatest danger ; but blessed be God, by using every precaution, and maintaining a careful balance, we got over safely. As there was no sort of accommoda- tion whatever where we had left our horses, we were obliged to push on, in the hope of reaching an inn a few miles further up the river St. Clair. By this time it was growing dark, and before we had pro- ceeded half a mile the rain came on in torrents, and the thunder and lightning were so terrific that the horses trembled and could scarcely keep their legs. The darkness also became so great that except from the flashes of lightning we were unable to see the road. Having crept forward about a mile and a half, the storm continuing without intermission, we descried, from a friendly flash of lightning, a farm- house, and happy were the party when I consented to stay there for the night. It was now late, for we had consumed much time in making this short journey, and the inmates of the house were all sound asleep. After knocking for some time they at length opened the door and let us in. We stated our distress, and the causes which had led to our d's-
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turbing them, which indeed were sufficiently visible from our miserable and drowned appearance, and on hearing our story they received us kindly, and did all in their power to make us comfortable."
This, however, was nothing compared with the difficulties encountered on another occasion in a journey from Owen Sound to Guelph. The Bishop had reached the Sound by steamer from Manitoulin Island. He says — "We found the road very rough, and getting worse as we proceeded. It ran along a stony ridge to avoid the low and marshy places on either side, and what with large stones, deep crevices between them, roots of trees, and deep holes, the shaking of the wagon became intolerable. After confirming at two places, the latter thirteen miles from Owen Sound, we left for Edge's at half-past four, and though scarcely nine miles off, with little hope of getting there, as the road was becoming more and more impracticable. After bounding from stone to stone, the rain meanwhile falling in torrents, and occasionally getting into a deep hole by way of variety, we found darkness rapidly approaching, and were glad to crave shelter for the night from Mr. Smith, who with his wife, ten sons, and one daughter, had taken up Government land, and was gradually clearing a good farm. We no doubt put the family to much inconvenience; yet they made us heartily welcome, and insisted that we should occupy their beds, such as they were, doing all in their power to make us comfortable.
" We rose next morning as soon as we could see, and got ready for our journey. A mile onwards there was a very heavy, deep slough, full of roots and loose stones, through which the Smiths told us it would be impossible for the horses to drag the wagon, and they very kindly offered to accompany us, and assist us in getting over it. We found their
uo
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account of it by no means exaggerated, for we were obliged to take the horses from the wagon, and even then they plunged so much that they were in the greatest danger of sinking over their heads. The poor animals, when they at length reached the firm soil, trembled and looked much frightened. The wagon was dragged through by the three Smiths, the driver, and two men whom I had hired to attend us on this perilous journey. The Smiths returned home, and we sent forward to Edge's to request that they would meet us with a yoke of oxen at a bridge over the river Saugeen, which was said to be very insecure, and at the further end of which was a slough much worse than the one we had just passed. We soon came to the bridge, where we alighted, and after examining it, and carefully mending some of the holes, and then using great caution, we got the wagon and horses safely across ; but they no sooner left it than they sank so deeply into the mire that we thought they would be lost. After some labour Ave got their harness off, and separated them from the wagon ; and then on our cheering them, they were roused to fresh exertion, and at length we got them upon hard ground. Had it not been for the two men who attended us, and the driver, the poor animals would certainly have been smothered. The oxen at last came, under the charge of an inexperi- enced Irishman. They succeeded in dragging the wagon out, but almost immediately the Irishman drove the oxen between two trees standing near together, and jammed the wagon in so tightly that one of the trees had, bp* be cut down. This was a work of time, as they "had no axe, only a hatchet. At last the oxen dragged the wagon out of the swamp to the foot of a high hill, which was so slippery and steep and wet that the poor oxen were put to their utmost exertion to reach the top.
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This," the Bishop says, " was a severe trial to us all, but it was useless to murmur ; we had been seven hours getting over nine miles, and it was past ten when we reached Edge's house. At eleven we had service, the congregation numbering seventeen, but only one person was presented for confirmation.
" We proceeded on our journey at half-past one, and had not proceeded far when we found the road or path obstructed by a large tree, which a settler had just cut down, and was cutting into lengths. We had much difficulty in getting around this, and were vexed at the woodman's evident enjoyment of our perplexity. We thought him rude and insolent, but he had no such meaning, for going a little farther we stuck fast in a mud-hole, and in a moment we saw the chopper running to our assistance. Luckily we met two other men going to fish in the river Saugeen, who, seeing our distress, very willingly offered to help us. With these additional hands we managed to relieve the horses and to drag the wagon on to hard ground. The two fishermen offered to accompany us two miles further, where there was the worst slough, they said, upon the whole road between Owen Sound and Fergus. There were several bad spots before we reached this, the king of mild-holes, which it cost us no little trouble to get over. We now began to dread these sloughs, and the poor horses trembled when they saw one. At length we reached the famous mud-hole, pronounced by the settlers so formidable. We made a halt to beat up additional recruits ; oxen were not to be had, nor was it quite clear that they could have got through with the wagon, the swamp was so long, so deep, so intersected with fallen trees, roots, and stones. I held the horses, and all the party, includ- ing the Rev. Mr. Mockridge, the verger, four settlers whom we had collected, besides those who had come
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with us, went to work, and with strong arms pulled the wagon through. We had taken fourteen hours, including the service, to travel seventeen miles. We did not reach Mr. Beatty's, our next appointment, till seven o'clock ; although, in ignorance of the road, I had appointed three o'clock for service. The people, however, judging more wisely of the obstruc- tions, did not begin to assemble till after six o'clock, and we overtook many of them as we passed along. The service commenced immediately on our arrival. There was a large congregation ; and I felt myself more than rewarded for all the difficulties and toil we had endured, by their earnest attention and evident emotion."
This is of course a description of one of the worst of the Bishop's unceasing journeyings ; but it gives a fair idea of the not unfrequent toils of the early heralds of the Gospel in the backwoods of Canada.
Bishop Strachan, as may be easily inferred from what has been said, was an eminently practical man. It was his custom after every ordination to gather the newly-ordained deacons and priests into his study, and to give them a long lecture on the practical duties of their office. The writer has a vivid recol- lection of that lecture. Two practical suggestions specially impressed him. The Bishop said, speaking in broad Scotch, " Always shave yourself before you come down in the morning ; a clergyman ought always to look like a gentleman." I think most of us have rigidly adhered to that direction all our lives. Then again he said, "When you go into a house, call up the children, pat them on the head, and ask them what they are going to make of this one, and what of that ; the mothers like it." And the Bishop knew how to act on his own advice, as the following anecdote will show.
One day, late in the fall, he was making his way
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through the woods between Newmarket and Barrie. It was raining, night was coming on, no settler's habitation was in sight, when, to add to their misery, the wagon broke down, and could not be got on any' further. Dr. Bethune, who was acting as Bishop's chaplain, was not a little alarmed at their situation. The Bishop said nothing, but walked on along the bush-road whistling. Before long he descried a light through the woods and made for it, Dr. Bethune following. It was a settler's log-house. They rapped and went in ; the woman was ironing near the door.- They said good-evening, but she did not speak, and continued to work away without noticing them. The Bishop told her of their calamity and distress, but she was unmoved and said nothing. Dr. Bethune whispered, " It is impossible for us to stay here, we must push on." The Bishop said nothing, began to whistle, as was his wont, went over to the open fire, and began to dry his cap and clothes, taking no more notice of the woman, who went on with her work. After a little while a little child came in, with a dirty face and dirty clothes. The Bishop sat down and called the little one over to him, took it on his knee, wiped its face, and began to play with it with unaffected interest, for he was very fond of children. The mother turned round and said, " Gentlemen, I suppose you have not had your tea," and they said " No," and then proceeded to enlarge upon their perplexity. She said, " Well, we have very poor accommodation, and I did not want you to stay here, but we will do the best we can for you," and so the horses were brought and fed, and they turned in for the night.
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THE FOUNDING OF TRINITY COLLEGE.
The blow long apprehended fell at last. An Act was passed in 1848, changing the name of King's College into that of the University of Toronto, and so altering the features of the original charter that they could no longer be recognized. The institution was wholly secularized. It was enacted that there should henceforth be no professorship, lectureship, or teachership of divinity in this Uni- versity ; that no person should be qualified to be appointed by the Crown to any seat in the Senate, who shall be a minister, ecclesiastic, or teacher, under or according to any form or profession of religious faith or worship whatsoever. It was further enacted that no religious observance, according to the forms of any religious denomination, should be imposed upon the members or officers of the said University or any of them ; and finally, that no religious test or Qualification whatsoever should be required from student, professor, or fellow."
Churchmen generally regarded the Act as an insult to the Christian religion, and a trampling upon those principles which it had been their desire and en- deavour to have engrained into the educational insti- tutions of the land. And so, under the leadership of the Bishop, they resolved to found a University of their own, in which the sanctifying, moulding doctrines of the Christian Faith should be interwoven with all secular learning.
The proposal made by the Government that colleges established by the different religious bodies of the land should affiliate with the Toronto University, leaving all teaching except theology to this central body, was altogether scouted by the Bishop and his associates. He regarded this as a thrusting forth
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of Christianity. She might take up her abode in porches and corners and alleys, where she would be shrouded from view and buried from sight as some- thing to be ashamed of, and he would give no countenance to this insult and indignity to the Faith by which he lived.
Accordingly, in the month of January 1850, the Bishop addressed a strong appeal to the clergy and laity of his Diocese, calling upon them to aid by their contributions the establishment of what had now become a necessity — -a Church University — and heading the subscription list with a gift of £1000. " Let not then," he writes in this address, " the friends and members of the Church look for rest till the proper means are found for the religious education of her children. We have fallen indeed on evil times, and the storm has overtaken us, aggravated by the painful reflection that we have contributed largely, by our want of unity and consistency, to bring it on ourselves. Yet we must not be discouraged, for though the waters threaten to overwhelm us, we are still the children of hope."
The Bishop pointed out ways in which the neces- sary endowment could be obtained, by small grants of land and money on the part of the 200,000 Church members then residing in his Diocese. In less than nine months £25,000 were subscribed within the Diocese of Toronto. The Bishop then resolved to appeal to the Churchmen of England to help him.
Accordingly, on the 10th April, 1850, at the age of seventy-two, he left for England, followed to the steamer by a large body of the inhabitants of all classes and conditions, from the Chief Justice of the Province to the bronzed labourer, and he set sail amidst the cheers and plaudits of all.
In a short time he succeeded in adding £15,000 to the funds of the intended University, and he came
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back to Canada early in November, determined to start it, and satisfied that he would, on its inception, receive a royal charter. In this he was not disap- pointed, for on Thursday, January 15th, 1852, half the original design of Trinity College was completed, the royal charter obtained, and the institution opened with a large number of students and a staff of very able Professors.
The endowment of Trinity College is now (1891), including the land on which the College is built and the buildings, worth not less than 800,000 dollars. The building has been enlarged so that it will now accommodate seventy-five students. It has twelve Professors in the Arts and Divinity departments. It has also the most successful medical school in the Dominion, conducted by twenty-two Professors. The establishment and success of this department is due very largely to the ceaseless energy and ability of Dr. Walter Gekie, the Dean of the Faculty.
FOUNDATION OF THE SYNOD.
The year 1851 was remarkable in the annals of the Canadian Church. In that year the first actual step in the establishment of Diocesan Synods was taken. It was, however, no sudden or new conception. Early in 1832, Dr. Strachan, then Archdeacon of York, drafted a constitution for the consideration of the Bishop of Quebec, his Diocesan.
In his letter enclosing this draft, he says — " I am quite convinced we shall never gain much ground in the Province, or obtain that influence on public opinion, or with the Government, or with the Bishop himself, that we ought to possess, till we have fre- quent Convocations, to consist of the laity as well as the clergy."
The scheme was frequently discussed in meetings
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of the clergy, and the feeling was decidedly in favour of Synodal action. Nothing, however, was done till 1851, when the Bishop summoned the clergy to a meeting, and requested them to invite their people to select one or two members from each parish to accompany them.
In response to this summons, 124 clergymen and 127 laymen assembled at the Church of the Holy Trinity, Toronto, on Thursday, May 1st, 1851. The Bishop delivered a charge of considerable length. On that and the following days, several grave questions were discussed, and resolutions were passed, express- ing a strong protest against the secularization of the Clergy Reserves, then pending. Another resolu- tion was adopted in favour of applying to the Crown for the establishment of Diocesan Synods, to consist of laity as well as clergy. It was also resolved to petition the Colonial Legislature in favour of separ- ate Church schools. Such was the practical com- mencement of the Synod of the Diocese of Toronto. " This," as the Bishop states in his original draft, " was suggested by, and in the main copied from, the constitutions of the Diocesan Conventions in the United States. It was the first Diocesan Synod regularly constituted in the Colonial Church. It has been imitated and reproduced in every Diocese of that Church not strictly a missionary Diocese. They all, or nearly all, have the same equality of the clerical and lay votes. And whatever theoretical or traditional objections may be urged against this equality, it has worked at least fairly well. The laity have, from their very lack of knowledge of the questions that have been agitated in this age, proved the con- servative element, opposing whatever was called innovations, even though they may be manifest im- provements, and thus holding the onward movement, to which the clergy with their fuller knowledge are
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more inclined to give themselves, in restraint, until by the general diffusion of information the whole body is prepared to move forward together. This is often very trying to the patience of the clergy, but it probably prevents many a defection."
We have our Synods everywhere in the Canadian Church, and we should not know how to get on without them. And yet Synods have not accomplished for the Church what Bishop Strachan and many another, contemplating them from a theoretical stand- point, had expected from them. They are very apt to degenerate into mere technical legislation, or to become mere talking institutions, resulting in endless resolutions which become a dead letter unless some one individual consecrates his time and talents to impart to them living form and reality. The fact comes out, more and more clearly, that the wisest plans and the most elaborate legislation will do but little to strengthen or extend the Church apart from individual influence and energy. It is only the individual influence and direction of the Bishop, of the priest, of the lay-helper, of the Sunday-school worker and district visitor that will ever accomplish much for God and his Church.
SUBDIVISION OF THE DIOCESE.
The Bishop of Toronto had long sought the sub- division of his Diocese. He had planned its present subdivision into five sees. He desired and expected that the Eastern part, with Kingston as its See city, would be first established. The Western part, how- ever, outstripped their brethren in the East in securing an endowment, and consequently the Diocese of Huron, which has now outgrown the capabilities of one Bishop, was set apart, and the Rev. Dr. Cronyn,
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then Rector of London, was elected as its first Bishop.
In 1861, the Eastern portion of the old Diocese of Toronto completed the required endowment, and was set off as a separate Diocese under the designation of the Bishopric of Ontario. The Rev. John Travers Lewis, the present Bishop of that Diocese, was elected at the age of thirty-five, and began his Episcopal career backed by the enthusiastic loyalty and high expectations of his Diocese. This Diocese too is now ripe for subdivision, with Ottawa as the centre of a new See.
THE ELECTION OF A COADJUTOR FOR TORONTO.
Bishop Strachan was sixty-one when consecrated ; he had now been twenty-seven years a bishop, and was consequently an old man. His confirmation tours were continued with unremitting punctuality ; they began, however, to be greatly dreaded. The Bishop had always expressed his determination to die in harness, and no one had ventured to suggest the appointment of an assistant. When, however, he made the proposal himself, the Synod at once took the necessary action, raised an endowment for the See of Toronto (for Bishop Strachan's stipend being wholly derived from the Clergy Reserves would die with him), and in 1866 proceeded to the election of a coadjutor. The Rev. George Whittaker, Provost of Trinity College, a man of great natural talents and great acquirements, was the choice of a vast majority of the clergy. The Rev. Dr. Fuller, afterwards the first Bishop of Niagara, had a majority of the lay votes, but after a prolonged contest the Venerable Archdeacon Bethune was chosen. He was conse- crated under the title of the Bishop of Niagara, with the right of succession to Toronto. The new Bishop
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was sixty-six years old when elected, and he ruled the Diocese for ten years. He went to the first Pan- Anglican Synod, held in September 1867, and during his absence Bishop Strachan died at the age of ninety-four.
The coadjutor became Bishop of Toronto, by right of succession. He had been the pupil, and became . the life-long friend and counsellor, of Bishop Strachan, and yet no two men could be more unlike than they. Bishop Strachan was a man of war from his youth, always in battle, sturdy, resolute, ready for the fray. The ideal of his life was that of a Christian soldier, standing up for the truth, and ready to die for it. The ideal of Bishop Bethune's life, whether con- sciously or not, was that of one who was trying above all things to live peaceably with all men. He was a man of high intellectual gifts, and of extensive reading, of gentle and refined disposition, but of a reserved and unemotional character, unlike his pre- decessor, who was naturally a man of stormy and masterful temper. Bishop Bethune seldom or never got angry. He was distressed by the waywardness and rough tempers of others ; but as the result of it all, he lived an unruffled life. He might have been a great bishop at an earlier time and under other circumstances, but he came to the throne too late. He was not the man for the times in which he lived. Party strife, which had been repressed by the strong hand of Bishop Strachan, but which had been grow- ing in intensity during the latter years of his life, now broke out in its wildest fury. A sti-ong phalanx of able laymen of the extreme Evangelical school set themselves in array against him, and the gentle aged Bishop was no match for their machinations. The result was the establishment, first, of the Church Asso- ciation, and then of Wyckliff College, in direct and avowed antagonism to Trinity College, the pride of
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Bishop Strachan's life. This institution is based upon and bound by other doctrinal tests than those of the Thirty-nine Articles and the Prayer-book. It grew out of a bitter party spirit, and is directly interested in keeping up the strife, not only with Trinity College, but in every parish in the land. Its success depends upon the ability of its supporters to persuade Church people that all who differ from its narrow system are conspirators and Romanists, and so they set themselves to exaggerate differences that do exist, and to invent others which are merely imaginary. One of its chief supporters and promo- tors says — "Wyckliff College is not answerable to the Synod — Diocesan or Provincial — to the House of Bishops, or to the Church in its corporate capacity " — a position this which no institution which claims to be of the Church of England and to train its ministers ought in honesty to attempt to occupy. It has become affiliated with the Toronto University, and is meeting with no little success. If it could only lay aside its bitter partizan spirit, and consent to be subject to the rule of the Church, and to be bound by those wide limits allowed within the Church of England, it might, as the result of its relationship to the Toronto University, become a useful institution of the Church.
Bishop Bethune was punctual and unceasing in his visitations of his Diocese to the very close of his Episcopate. The difficulty and toil had, however, become almost inconceivably lightened since the early days of Bishop Strachan. The forests had long ago been cleared away. The impassable roads had given place, on the principal thoroughfares at least, to well- constructed stone and gravel highways. The settlers' shanties had been replaced by stately brick and stone houses, the scanty furniture by luxurious appoint- ments, the spinning-wheel by the piano, and every-
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where, to the remotest parts of the Diocese, the land was now intersected by railways.
Bishop Bethune, out of the midst of a stormy- Episcopate, passed to the peace which he loved on the 3rd February, 1879.
BISHOP SWEATMAN.
It is a rule of all the regularly constituted Dioceses of Ontario, that when a bishop dies or resigns, the Synod shall be called together for the election of his successor within twenty-one days, the object evidently being to give as little time as possible for party organization, intrigue, and canvassing. The event had, however, in this case been foreseen and prepared for, on one side at least, by a perfect organization, and so one of the most fiercely contested Episcopal elections of modern times ensued. For nine days the ballots were again and again cast, without the variation of three votes, the vast majority of the clergy voting for the Venerable George Whittaker, Provost of Trinity College, and a small majority of the laity for Dr. Sullivan, the present Bishop of Algoma. The issue of this deadlock was a con- ference, which resulted in the almost unanimous election of Archdeacon Sweatman, of the Diocese of Huron. Dr. Sweatman was a distinguished graduate of Cambridge, who was chiefly known by being chosen as the first Head-Master of Hellmuth College, Diocese of Huron. He had a difficult role to play. Party spirit ran high. The Low Churchmen, who claimed the honour of his election, treated him as altogether their own, and insisted upon his acting as the head and spokesman of their party. This was a very mistaken policy on their pai-t. The Bishop, who was a loyal Churchman, of the moderate Evan- gelical school, resented such treatment, and in spite
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of ominous words uttered in his first charge, set himself honestly to work impartially. In this respect he has succeeded as well perhaps as any man in his difficult position could succeed. Steady progress is at all events being made under his Episcopate, extending now over a period of ten years. The clergy have increased during this time from 116 to 166. Seventy-five churches have been built and 32 consecrated. A new cathedral of stately dimensions has been undertaken by the Bishop, the choir of which is now nearly completed. A Church school of the collegiate type, for boys, has been established in Toronto, in addition to that previously existing at Port Hope, and promises to become a prosperous institution. Trinity College has nearly doubled its strength. Wyckliffe has built a large and substantial College, and is reported as very prosperous. The Bishop Strachan Memorial School, for girls, was never so successful as at the present time, and is sending forth every year a large company of educated and instructed Church women. A nursing sisterhood has been established under the Bishop's sanction.
There is a vast mission work yet to be accomplished in the Diocese, and as the Bishop is still a young man, his Episcopate may yet be crowned with a glory surpassing that of either of his predecessors, if he sets himself to work to call forth and organize the reserved forces of the Church in such a way as to bring her ministrations within reasonable reach of every inhabitant of his still very extensive Diocese.
THE CLERGY.
There is not space within the prescribed limits of this record to give any detailed account of the life and work of the clergy who laboured in the Diocese of Toronto during this prolonged period. Indeed it
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would hardly be possible to do so, even if we bad twice the space, for most of them passed away without leaving any other record of their life than the work they had done. Many of those who were stationed in the rising towns have only had the ever-recurring routine work of a settled parish, and nothing has occurred in their lives calling for special notice. Of the missionary clergy one of the most noted was the Rev. Adam Elliot, who laboured among the Indians and as an itinerant missionary in the home district. His journal is a marvel of unremitting toil. Month after month, year after year, week-day and Sunday, be went from settlement to settlement, and from house to house, ministering and preaching every day, far and wide, over the vast territory for which he alone was responsible.
The Rev. H. H. O'Neil carried on for some time the same widely extended itinerant work in the "West. The Rev. F. L. Osier and his younger brother Henry were among the diligent missionaries of these pioneer times. Far away, 60 and 100 miles, they rode through the forest, preaching in kitchens and shanties and barns and school-houses as they found opportunity, keeping this up for years and years, until in more prosperous times the people were able to provide for a resident clergy.
The Revs. S. B. Ardagh, John Fletcher, James Nugent, Ed. Morgan, and earlier, George Hallen, the saint of the Canadian Church, and many others, were largely employed in this pioneer work for many years of their ministry. The most learned and influential clergy of this time were the Rev. James Be van, D.D.; the Rev. George Whittaker, one of the most accurate scholars of his day ; and the Rev. Dr. Carry, who by husbanding the scraps of time became perhaps the most widely read and accurate theologian in the Canadian Church. Each of these deserves a volume,
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and these are only samples of the sort of men who planted the Church in this land. There are many who are not inferior to these of whom it is not possible to speak particularly. Of my many able and devoted contemporaries who are still living in this Diocese, I have thought it best to say nothing now ; their record will be worthy to be written when their work is done.
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CHAPTER VI.
DIOCESE OF FREDERICTON.
The Province of New Brunswick, which is almost as large as the Kingdom of Scotland, was separated from Nova Scotia and erected into an independent Diocese in 1845. This was before the days of Epis- copal election. Its first Bishop, the Rev. John Medley, was therefore nominated by the Crown, and consecrated at Lambeth on the 4th May, 1845. He reached his Diocese in June of the same year, and immediately set about the work to which he had been called. Bishop Medley was a graduate of Wadham College, Oxford, and at the time of his nomination was Vicar of St. Thomas, Exeter, and Prebendary of the cathedral. In 1849, he became Metropolitan of Canada. He is to-day the oldest bishop, with one exception, in the Anglican Communion. Bishop Medley is a second edition of Bishop Strachan. No one at least who knew Bishop Strachan, could ever look upon Bishop Medley without being reminded of him. He has, moreover, the same characteristics that distinguished the first Bishop of Toronto — a powerful intellect, quick perception, sound judgment, prompt and unfaltering decision. Bishop Medley is a thinner and perhaps a somewhat shorter man than Bishop Strachan was. He has less of the masterful in his temper, and is gentler in his manners ; but in that proportion he is less of a leader of men, and so
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more inclined to let matters develop themselves rather than to develop them by his own will and energy.
One who is well qualified to speak, writes of Bishop Medley — "The time has not yet come for a just estimate of Bishop Medley's work and character. That he has laid broad and deep the foundations of the Church of England in this Province cannot be denied. Many spots in New Brunswick which were spiritually ' waste places ' on his arrival, now bloom and blossom as the rose. He has ever aimed to advance the Church as a whole, and to that end has not occupied himself with the petty and often super- ficial activities of life, but, ' temperate in all things,' has done regularly, without wasting mental or physical power, a vast amount of good work which will remain. Much has been done by him for Church music, Church architecture, and for a better and more reverential performance of public worship. But Dr. Medley's success as a bishop is due largely to his power as a preacher, to his exceptional liberality, and to his simplicity of life."
Nine years before the Bishop's consecration, Arch- deacon Coster reports — " There are eighty parishes or townships in New Brunswick, and our ecclesiastical establishment consist of twenty eight clergymen and forty-three churches or chapels ; but these forty-three churches are all contained in thirty -six parishes, several of which possess more than one church, so that there are still forty-four parishes without a church at this time. The twenty-eight clergymen reside in twenty-three parishes, some of these parishes having more than one clergyman, so that there are fifty-seven parishes out of eighty without a resident clergyman. I do not say that there are so many without clerical care, for it is well known that most of our clergy have two or more parishes under their
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charge, and that they are continually obliged to go very far from their homes in the performance of their duty. But still," he adds, " there are fifty-seven parishes without a resident clergyman."
Ten years elapsed between the writing of this report and the first record of Bishop Medley's work, and yet hardly any progress had been made. Two months after his arrival, the Bishop began his visit- ation of the Diocese, and before the end of the year he had visited almost every parish in it. He found some places entirely destitute, of the ministrations of the Church, and others very insufficiently provided with them. The schools too, for which the Church had made herself responsible, were in a languishing condition. The fact is, that while the population of the colony had been rapidly increasing, the number of the clergy had for some years remained almost stationary.
In June 1845, there were thirty clergymen — only two more than in 1836 — but the Bishop was enabled materially to increase their number by ordaining ten candidates, and so six new missions were at once organized. This too was effected by the contributions of the people, without any additional demand upon the S. P. G.
A second visitation of the Diocese, lasting from June to the beginning of September, was made during the year 1846. The Bishop was greatly gratified by the respectful attention which he everywhere received from the clergy and the principal inhabitants, who conveyed him from station to station. He reports that he found the roads for the most part superior to the cross roads, and some of them equal to the best turnpike roads in England ; " and as to the climate," he adds, " as there exists in England much misappre- hension on this point, it may be right to state that I consider it, beyond all question, a finer climate than
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that of England. It is undoubtedly hotter and colder, inasmuch as in July our thermometer ranges from 75° to 100°, and in December, January, and February, from a few degrees above freezing to 30° below zero. But, in the first place, neither the heat nor the cold are proportionately so trying as they would be in England, so that the chilly, starved feeling of cold and wet together, is almost unknown here. Then our sunshine is at least three to one as compared with England, the bright sun giving a cheerful look to the snowy landscape."
During the progress of the visitation, the Bishop was greatly gratified by the results which had fol- lowed the labours of a missionary — the Rev. Thomas Robertson — whom he had the year before ordained and stationed at Musquash. The people appreciating his zeal and activity, speedily erected a parsonage- house and subscribed so liberally towards his main- tenance, that the S. P. G. grant was almost wholly released. They also erected two churches in the mission. One Sunday of this journey was spent in the county of Albert, where, though the country was rich and nourishing, no clergyman of the Church had ever been stationed. Here the Bishop was kindly received by a Baptist minister, who immediately circulated notice that the Bishop would conduct Divine service on Sunday next at Hillsborough. " In the morning," says the Bishop, " though the notice was so short, the whole country was in motion, some on horseback, some in wagons, and many on foot. Having robed at a cottage hard by, we pro- ceeded to the chapel, where three hundred people had assembled, scarcely any of whom had ever seen a bishop or heard the Church Service. I never had a more attentive audience. A few very zealous Church- men were there, who, aided by others not Churchmen, subscribed £50 per annum towards the support of a
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missionary. In the afternoon we just escaped in the rear of a most terrific thunderstorm, and I held service again, where I feel sure the sound of our Liturgy was heard for the first time." In passing through the Diocese the Bishop saw much that weighed heavily upon his mind. Some places he found entirely des- titute of the ordinances of the Church, and many more with opportunities of public worship occurring only once every month or six weeks ; while the clergy were exhausting themselves in constant travelling from station to station over a wide extent of country. "The Society," writes the Bishop, "will judge of the destitution that prevailed when I tell them, that after filling up twelve vacancies, I could find immediate and full employment for twenty additional clergymen, without diminishing the labours of any one at present in Holy Orders."
And not only were the people in these neglected districts deprived of the ordinances of religion, they were in many cases without Bibles and books of devotion, and so condemned, in a manner, to see their children grow up in ignorance and indifference. This is the condition of many and many a family in a new colony, and such it must continue to be, unless the Church at home can be induced to look with deeper and more general sympathy on the wants of her suffering members. It surely is our fault more than theirs, that so many stray from the fold or are lost in indifference and unbelief ; for, says the Bishop, "wherever an active, useful clergyman is placed, the Church more than holds her ground."
In the course of his two first visitations the Bishop confirmed more than one hundred candidates, and was impressed with their serious and devout demeanour.
The first missionary Church Society in any colony had been established in Fredericton in 1836, by the influence and under the presidency of Archdeacon
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Coster. Certain Church people of St. John held aloof from the new Society until, under the influence of Bishop Medley, they were induced to take their part in the missionary efforts of the Church, and the result was the immediate doubling of the income of the Society, and the opening up of some additional missions.
One of the earliest projects to which the Bishop devoted his attention was the erection of a cathedral. Shortly after his arrival he laid before the inhabitants a plan of the projected building. Much interest was expressed in it, and liberal subscriptions were pro- mised. The first stone was solemnly laid on the 15 th October, 1846, by the Governor, Sir William Cole- brooke, in the presence of the most influential people in the colony; but in consequence of an unforeseen difficulty no progress was made till the spring of 1847.
The cathedral was finished mainly by the energy and untiring zeal of the Bishop. Cut on a stone in the chancel arch may be seen the three letters F. S. M., the history of which is as follows.
At a time when the Building Fund was greatly depressed, the Bishop anxious, and not knowing where to look for the needed aid, there came a letter from England purporting to have been written by one of three sisters, and enclosing, as the col- lective gift of the three, the sum of £500 sterling. The gift was accompanied by the assurance that the Bishop would never know who the donors were, and by the request that the initials F. S. M., of the sisters' names respectively, might be cut upon any stone in the cathedral that the Bishop might select. To this day it is wholly unknown by whom the money was contributed.
At another period of great financial difficulty, the Bishop, being in England collecting money, was
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accosted in the street by a young man claiming to be an old Sunday-school pupil, and who expressed the wish that the Bishop would give him his authority to gather what he could towards the Building Fund of the cathedral in Fredericton. Armed with the Bishop's letter he went to his work, the Bishop anticipating little or nothing from the adventure. At the expiration of about a year or more, having almost forgotten the occurrence, he received a cheque from the young man for £1400 sterling.
Chief Justice Chipman left £10,000 (fifty thousand dollars) to the Diocesan Church Society, with the stipulation that it should be invested, and the annual income derived therefrom applied to the support of Home Missions. He also left £5000 (twenty-five thousand dollars) to the Madras Board, to assist in maintenance of schools under the Madras system, which was at that time (1851) the chief available system for the education of the poorer classes, and combined with it a certain amount of definite Church teaching. He also subscribed liberally to the Bishops' Endowment Fund.
KING S COLLEGE.
The University of King's College, Fredericton, like its namesakes at Windsor and Toronto, was formerly under the control of the Church of England. By its charter, dated the 15th December, in the eighth year of the reign of King George IV., the Bishop of the Diocese was made its visitor, the Archdeacon of New Brunswick ex officio its President, and the Lieut.-Governor of the Province its Chancellor. The government of the College was vested in a council of nine, composed of the Chan- cellor, the President, the Visitor, and seven Professors,
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being members of the Church of England ; and in case there should not be seven Professors in the University, the Chancellor was empowered to fill up the council from among the graduates of the College, being members of the Church of England.
The College was endowed with 6000 acres of excellent land in the neighbourhood of Fredericton, £1000 sterling per annum from the Crown, and £1000 per annum from the Colonial Legislature. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel sup- ported five or six scholarships for several years.
On the 27th March, 1845, this charter was par- tially repealed by an Act of the Colonial Legis- lature. The control of the institution was placed in the hands of civil officers ; all tests from professors or students were removed, except the Professor of Theology, who was required to be a member of the Church of England, and Divine Service to be per- formed in the chapel of the College was to be according to the forms of the United Church of England and Ireland, and persons taking Divinity degrees were required still to take the oaths prescribed by the charter. By later legislation the institution was wholly secularized.
There is not much of striking incident or variety in the onward progress of the Church during Bishop Medley's administration. The effort has been to subdivide and to extend, and there have been the usual appeals both to the Church in the Diocese and at home for funds and for men to sustain and extend the work. The progress has been steady but slow, and much still remains to be done.
In his report to the S. P. G. in 1879, the Bishop says, " that the number of the clergy now amounts to seventy-three, the largest number yet attained ; every vacancy is filled, and several new missions have been opened during the past year." Like all his brethren,
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he has to complain of the want of liberality on the part of the laity, as making Church extension difficult, if not impossible. The commercial depression and the recent disastrous fire in St. John, are referred to as accounting in part for this deficiency ; but still the Bishop feels that his well-to-do lay people are not seconding his efforts as they should. He mentions the Rev. L. H. Hoyt of Andover, whose parishioners were largely engaged daring the winter in lumbering operations, as one of the many instances of fervent zeal and ready adaptation to the needs of his position. Observing how few men there were at church, he resolved to follow them eighty miles away from his home, to their winter quarters. This effort was attended with the happiest results. The example thus set by a young man was soon followed by others of the clergy, and proved a great blessing to the dwellers in the lone wilderness.
The three most noteworthy events of the year were — (1) The consecration of the largest church in the Diocese, Trinity, St. John, which had been destroyed by the great fire ; (2) the election of Dr. Kingdon as Coadjutor of the Diocese ; (3) his own election as Metropolitan of Canada. The Diocese was then contributing £4000 (twenty thousand dollars) for its missionary work.
Among the many excellent missions, the Bishop writes — " Perhaps none excels in interest that of New Denmark, carried on by the Rev. R. M. Hansen. The population is wholly Danish, reinforced every year by fresh arrivals from Denmark — originally Lutherans by profession. The whole number of colonists joined the Church of England, and became hearty in their allegiance."
In a paper prepared in 1881 for the S. P. G., the Metropolitan gave a brief account of the progress of the Church during his Episcopate. He says — " I
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infer, from the scanty records to which I have access, that the Church of England in this Province always had to contend with great difficulties. A very large proportion of the inhabitants were French Acadians, all Roman Catholics, who form now one-sixth of the population ; and many of the early settlers in the neighbourhood of Fredericton and elsewhere, who came from the United States before the Revolution, were Baptists or Congregationalists. I draw a like inference from the recorded fact that when Mr. Cook first settled at Fredericton, the inhabitants were 400 in number, that only 100 went to church, which renders it probable that many of those that did not attend were Roman Catholics or Dissenters. To be sure, there was little to invite them, as the service was held in the King's Provision Store, used for almost every secular purpose, amongst others for balls and dancing-parties, as well as for the sale of spirits. I think fully eleven years passed before a suitable church was completed. From 1835, when Mr. Cook was appointed as the first missionary of New Brunswick, to 1845, when Bishop Medley was consecrated, the clergy had increased from one to twenty-eight. " The misfortune," he continued, " has always been the overgrown size of the missions, and the difficulty of supplying every congregation with a regular service once a week. Our effort has been to divide the missions, which, sometimes from want of men and sometimes from want of money, has been a slow process. Thirty-eight such subdivisions have taken place ; the increase of the clergy has been as great as could reasonably have been expected. I found about twenty-eight ; there are now seventy ; and there are hardly any places occupied by the Church in New Brunswick in which the church fabric has not been built or rebuilt, or restored and greatly improved. The communicants have steadily and
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greatly increased ; those who do communicate attend more frequently, while those who are confirmed far more generally became communicants than was formerly the case.
" One reason why the Church has not made as rapid progress in this Diocese as in some of the more western jurisdictions, is found in the fact that the climate is more severe, and the soil less fertile. Then such immigration as has taken place into New Brunswick has consisted almost entirely of Scotch and Irish ; furnishing large additions to Presby- terians or various denominations, and to Eoman Catholics. These, occupying positions of extreme antagonism, do not look with any favour on the middle ground held by the Church of England. Yet," the Bishop says, "we hold bur own, and there is no bitterness or violence of controversy between us. The Diocese is suffering from an extensive and continual exodus from this Province to the United States, as a result of the depression of business, and the scarceness of unoccupied productive land. Whole families of Church people are constantly leaving us, and do not return. A constant stream of young men is passing from this Province into the Republic ; while the limited immigration comes from a source that brings no strength to us. As we now stand, every clergyman in charge of a mission has his hands full. Almost all have three services every Sunday, with long distances to travel.
The Coadjutor, a learned, godly, and zealous man, sustains the character of chief missionary rather than that of a governing bishop. In the laborious tours that he has made in recent yeai^s, he has come on places where Churchmen have not had a visit from a clergyman for eight years ; in one place, where a good lady, who had never ceased sending her sub- scription to the Diocesan Society, had waited for years,
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hoping against hope, and praying daily for a clergy- man to baptize her child. A beautiful church has since been erected there — dedicated to the memory of a saintly pioneer, familiarly called Father Hudson.
THE PIONEER CLERGY.
Among the more prominent clergymen who laboured in New Brunswick in the pioneer period of its his- tory, in addition to those whose work we have already described in the history of Nova Scotia, may be mentioned, the Rev. George Pidgeon, an Irishman by birth, and a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin. He came to America as an ensign in the Rifles, and at the end of the Revolutionary War, acting under the advice of Bishop Inglis, he prepared for the sacred ministry. He found occasion on his ordination to endure, in outlying mission work, the hardness with which he had become familiar in his worldly calling. He was appointed to the Rectory of Fredericton on the death of Dr. Cook, and afterwards, in 1814, he became Rector of St. John.
The Rev. Samuel Andrews, the first Rector of St. Andrew's, came from Wallingford, Conn., in the year 1776. He reports that on his arrival at St. Andrew's he found a considerable body of people, of different national extraction, living in general harmony and peace, punctual in attending Divine Service, and behaving with propriety and devotion. Great good had been done by Dr. Cook's visit, and the civil magistrate, ever since the town was settled, had acted as lay reader on Sundays, and set the people a good example. Mr. Andrews states, that owing to the fact that most of his people were for the present conforming Presbyterians, there were but few com- municants, while the baptisms were numerous. In
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1791, he baptized 110 persons in nine months. In 1793, while visiting a distant part of his mission, he was invited to a lonely house, where he found a large family awaiting him, and after prolonged instruction and examination, he baptized the ancient matron, eighty-two years of age, her son sixty, two grandsons, and seven great-grandchildren. During this year Mr. Andrews baptized 150 persons, though he had only thirty-two communicants. He died in 1818, at the age of eighty-two. He had spent thirty years of his life in missionary work in New Brunswick. His salary from the S. P. G. was only £50 per annum. He was succeeded by the Rev. Canon Ketchum, who is still in charge of the parish.
The mission, whose centre was Kingston, N". B., was founded by the Rev. James Scovil, one of the U. E.'s. He had an extensive and difficult field of labour ; the people being pioneer settlers had but very little money, and he could only build either church or residence by outside aid. He was succeeded by his son, Rev. Elias Scovil. For 130 years the three Scovils were in the ministry, and for ninety years they officiated at Kingston. Bishop Inglis in his reports frequently refers to the flourishing mission of Kingston, which he considered the Church mission of the Province. Archdeacon Best termed it the key- stone of the Church in New Brunswick, and remarked that here might be seen a church widely and firmly established, with 200 communicants, ably ruled by a learned and orthodox Scovil.
Another of the refugee clergy, the Rev. Richard Clarke, came to St. John in company with Messrs. Andrews and Scovil, and was put in charge of the difficult mission of Gagetown. The settlers were so poor that they could give him no assistance, and in some way he managed to live, with his wifp and nWpn children, on the salary of .£50 granted by the S. P. G.
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He was twenty-five years Rector of Gagetown, a patient and persevering worker. He was succeeded by bis son, the Rev. S. R. Clarke.
Woodstock and its neighbourhood was settled by Loyalists in 1787, and after a while they prevailed upon Mr. Frederick Dibblee of Stamford, Connecticut, who had escaped with the other Loyalists, to become their clergyman. He was the son of their former Rector, one of the inflexible Loyalists, who persisted in using the English Prayer-book, praying for the King long after the Declaration of Independence, and of whom the historian speaks as having been dragged through the mire and dirt because of his persistent loyalty. There is extant a wise and loving letter addressed to him by Bishop Seabury, entreating him to reconsider his position, and giving reasons for conform- ing to the American usage. His son Frederick, when chosen by the people, proceeded to Fredericton, and thence to St. John by canoe, there being no roads at that period. From St. John he took passage by schooner to Halifax, where he was ordained Deacon by Bishop Inglis, in 1791. Three months were occupied by Mr. Dibblee in his journey, during which time his family never heard a word from him. The journey can now be accomplished in eight or ten hours. Mr. Dibblee was appointed first missionary to the settlers on the river St. John living above St. Mary's and Kingsclear. It was a hard mission of great extent and difficult of access. The people were few in number, and scattered over an area of 150 miles. The roads were of the worst character. Bark canoes and riding on horseback were the only way of locomotion in the summer, and snow-shoes in the winter. Mr. Dibblee had taken great interest in the Indians, and when the Bishop visited his mission in 1792, he found no less than 250 families in and about Woodstock, who through Mr. Dibblee' s influence were prepared to
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give up their wandering life, and devote themselves to the culture of the soil. Iu the school which he established, the Indians appeared to have learnt as fast as the whites, and to have been fond of associ- ating with them. Everything betokened order and regularity in the school, the whites and Indians getting on most harmoniously. Mr. Dibblee con- tinued in charge of Woodstock and the surrounding country till his death, at the age of seventy-three, in May 1826.
The Rev. Oliver Arnold, the first Hector of Sussex, had a history not unlike that of Mr. Dibblee. He was one of the refugees, who was ordained by Bishop Inglis at the request of his fellow-exiles. He too carried on a successful work both among the whites and Indians. The Honourable George Leanord gave 240 acres of land for a parson's glebe, and built at his own cost a school-house 80 x 30 feet, for the use of the Indians and white settlers. Mr. Arnold lived to the age of seventy-nine, and was succeeded by his son, the Rev. Horatio Arnold, who worked faithfully and laboriously till his death at the age of forty-nine. His wife was a sister of Major- General Sir Frederick "Williams, the hero of Kars, in honour of whom one of the parishes of King's county has been called Kars.
The church at Westfield owes its first beginnings to Colonel Nase, who, together with Mr. Ward, a school-master, acted as lay-reader for many years whenever a mission was without a resident clergy- man. At Westfield he held services in private houses, and in the summer in a large barn belonging to his friend, the well known General John Coffin. It was in this building that several of Colonel Nase's sons were baptized when the Rev. Robert Norris was appointed to the mission. This clergyman's history was full of unusual adventure. He was born at
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Bath, England, in 1764. His parents were Roman CatliQlics, who sent their son," at the age of fourteen, to~ R"oine, to be educated for the priesthood. After eight years' residence in the Eternal City, he became Professor at the English College of St. Omer. He was admitted to the priesthood in the Roman Church at Christmas, 1789. It was while attending to his professional duties at St. Omer, frhat he began to question the teaching and practices of the Roman Church, and after prolonged and painful deliberation he determined to enter the Anglican Church. With this view he resolved to return to England ; on his way he Avas accused of being a British subject and an aristocrat. He was arrested and thrown into prison. This was the eve of the Reign of Terror. He suffered fifteen months' close and hard confine- ment, and lived in daily expectation of being led forth, like so many of his confederates, to execution. He was not released until the downfall of Robespierre, in 1794. He hastened to England as speedily as he could, and naturally supposed that his mental trials and bodily sufferings were at an end ; but he really fell into greater distress than he had yet encountered. All the members of his family were zealous Romanists. They felt indignant that one of their number, and he a priest, should forsake the faith of their fathers ; hence they refused to receive him ; his father dis- inherited him, and he found himself a stranger in his native land, without friends, acquaintances, or even the means of subsistence. He therefore sought to procure a livelihood by giving instruction in the French and Italian languages. He struggled on in this way for nearly two years, meeting with only partial success, until Dr. Charles Moss, Bishop of Bath and Wells, after becoming fully satisfied of his learning, religious principles, and moral character, recommended him to the Society for the Propagation
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of the Gospel, for employment as a missionary. On the 17th March, 1797, Mr. Norris renounced the errors of the Church of Rome in St. Mary la Bon church, Cheapside, and was appointed missionary to Nova Scotia. He immediately embarked for his new- field of labour, but did not reach Halifax till June. Without pausing to rest, after his long and perilous voyage, he pushed on to the newly-formed parish of Chester, of which he was put in charge. Here he officiated till 1801, when he was transferred to West- field. This mission in those days was very rough, the roads few and bad, and the people very scattered. His work was very trying. In 1806, he was appointed by Dr. Charles Inglis to the Rectory of Cornwallis and Horton. Amid the beautiful scenery of this pleasant parish he spent the remaining years of his life, happy in the discharge of his spiritual duties, and in more temporal comfort than he had hitherto enjoyed. He died on the 16th October, 1834, in the seventy-first year of his age.
Dr. Skeffington Thomson, a native of Ireland, and for some time a magistrate in that country, became second Rector of St. Stephen's, and was manifestly one of the energetic missionaries of that period. By his exertions six churches were built in his mission. Dr. Thomson was one of the small band of clergy who assisted Archdeacon Coster in the formation of the Diocesan Church Society, which has proved such a source of strength in New Brunswick.
The Rev. George Bisset, one of the Royalist clergy of Rhode Island, who suffered great privations and indignities for his principles, was appointed to the Rectory of St. John on the removal of Dr. Cook, of whom we have already spoken. He was evidently an able and successful man, and large congregations gathered around him. He laid the foundation of Old Trinity, but died before it was completed, within ten
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. years after his arrival at St. John. He had greatly endeared himself to his people, who speak of his death " with the most heartfelt grief," and they are per- suaded that no Church or community ever suffered a severer misfortune in the death of an individual than they experienced from the loss of this eminent servant of Christ, this best and most amiable of men.
The Rgy^Di^gyigs, who was elected to the Rectory of St. John in succession to Mr. Bisset, on the recommendation of the Bishop, belonged to a family of great reputation among the early Puritans. He himself was a Congregational minister for several, years. The Vestry of Christ Church, Boston, in 1768, invited him to become their minister, and on his consenting (whether from conviction or mere inclin- ation is not stated), they paid his expenses to go to England for Orders, and agreed to give him £100 per annum on his return. He was evidently an enthusiastic Loyalist, for on the Declaration of Inde- pendence, he at once resigned and removed to Halifax. After twelve years' service in that city, he was appointed Mr. Bisset's successor, and moved to St. John on the 4th May, 1789. The congregation wrote to the S. P. G., thanking them for recommend- ing so efficient a clergyman to them, and Dr. Byles reported to the same Society that on his arrival he found a decent house, a crowded church, and people who received him with every mark of good feeling and approbation. On Christmas 1791, Trinity church, which had been in course of construction for some time, was opened, and Dr. Byles preached the first sermon. He died in 1814, at the advanced age of eighty.
Dr. B. Gray, after having completed his education in England, was ordained in 1796, and put in charge of the missions a few miles from Halifax. When
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Jamaica was taken from the Spaniards in the seven- teenth century, large numbers of African slaves left the plantations, and took up their abode in the moun- tains. They were a wild, savage race, called Maroons ; they were conquered by the English, and 500 of them sent to Halifax. Such were the people over whom Mr. Gray was first appointed. He was afterwards appointed successively to the Rectory of St. George's Church, Halifax, and then, in 1825, he become Rector of St. John, N. B. He was mainly instrumental in the erection of Grace Church, Portland, which he and his curate served, till a resident clergyman was appointed. He sustained a terrible loss in 1833. His Rectory was burned, his wife perished in the flames, and his library, perhaps the finest in the Province, was completely destroyed. A subscription of £600 was made up and presented to Dr. Gray, to assist in repairing this latter loss. He died in 1854, in the eighty-sixth year of his age and the fifty-eighth of his ministry.
He was succeeded by his son, the Rev. T. W. D. Gray, who was considered one of the ablest divines of the Maritime Provinces. He was widely known as a keen debater and controversial writer. He was one of the first three Canons appointed by the Bishop of Fredericton, and one of his chaplains.
He was succeeded by the Rev. George Best, who was a man of great gentleness of character and un- affected piety. He was appointed first Archdeacon of New Brunswick by Bishop Inglis, and did much by his official visits to stir up the energies and in- terests of the Church in the outlying parishes and missions.
The Rev. George Coster, a graduate of St. John's College, Cambridge, had been appointed Archdeacon of Newfoundland in 1825, and on the death of Mr. Best he was transferred to the Rectorship of Freder-
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icton and the Archdeaconry of New Brunswick. He was a man of good judgment and practical ability, who took an active part in the extension of the missions of the Church.
He, with his brother, the Rev. Frederick Coster, for many years the efficient secretary, organized and earnestly promoted the first Church Society of the Canadian Church. One who knew the Archdeacon well, speaks of him as embodying the idea of a hero, a martyr, and a saint. " I am sure," he says, " if not precisely either of these, he yet could have been all, had the circumstances of his life called forth his latent powers. He was an English gentleman of the old school, and as a Churchman was far in advance of his time. He was the first to introduce into the Diocese the Church's rule of Daily Prayer, Saints' day observance, frequent Communion, the Offertory, the surplice in preaching, and the other changes of our time with which all are familiar. He exercised the most unstinted hospitality towards the clergy. His home life was made happy by his many charming gifts of mind and manner, added to his holy and self-denying life." Under sore trials from ill-health and worldly loss, " he remained patient, uncomplain- ing, and cheerful. He was a man of great learning, of wide and varied reading ; spending many hours of every day in his study. His education, refine- ment, and keen sense of humour, combined with his gentle kindness, made him a most delightful companion to his family and friends." While his gentleness, and active but unostentatious charity endeared him to the whole community in which he lived.
These are only examples selected from the lists of the men who were employed in the establishment of the Church in this Province.
There were many others as worthy of mention,
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who did their work earnestly and have passed to their reward, whose life cannot be even briefly traced in this record. They have been followed by more than one generation of men who have not proved themselves unworthy of the heroic pioneers of their race and calling.
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CHAPTER VII.
DIOCESE OF MONTREAL.
The Diocese of Montreal was formed out of that of Quebec, in the year 1850, eleven years after the foundation of Toronto. The Rev. Francis Fulford, who belonged to a knightly family which traces its history back to Saxon times, was chosen first Bishop. He was, at the time, minister of Curzon Chapel, Mayfair. He had previously been Rector of Trow- bridge, Wiltshire, and Croydon, Cambridgeshire. He was consecrated Bishop of Montreal in Westminster, on the 25th July, 1850.
When the first Anglican Bishop arrived at Quebec, he was heartily welcomed by the Gallican Bishop, who, with a kiss on both cheeks, expressed the pleasure he felt at receiving his Episcopal brother. " For," continued the French Canadian Prelate, " your people want you very badly."
The Bishop of Montreal did not, on his arrival, receive any such greeting from his Roman Catholic brothers, for the attitude of the Roman Church was changing, had changed already from the old Gallican to the new Ultramontane attitude. It was, however, quite as true now, as in that earlier time, that the people to whom the Bishop of Montreal came needed him very greatly. The theological questions that had been agitating the Church at home for nearly twenty years had long ago been wafted over the
M
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sea. The party strife had been daily waxing hotter, and when Bishop Fulford was appointed, there was the greatest anxiety on the one side and the other to know whether he was high or low. The Bishop, however, had made a solemn resolve that he would neither be " the lion of a sect, nor the leader of a party." Little could be gathered about his ante- cedents, and he knew full well the wisdom of keeping his own counsel, and of saying nothing as to his theological convictions, till duty called upon him to do so. Shortly after his arrival, a certain coterie of the clergy, who were growing daily more anxious as to what the Bishop's convictions might be, appointed one of their number to put the question plainly to him. They chose a public luncheon given in honour of the Bishop, as the occasion for this catechizing. At a lull in the conversation the gentleman appointed, addressing the Bishop, began rather abruptly by saying in the first place, "My lord, I shall frankly make a confe^sion with regard to myself, and then I shall as frankly ask a question with regard to your lordship. I am a low Church- man, my lord, a very low Churchman, I may say," but before he could proceed with the threatened question the Bishop interfered — " By which I hope
you mean, Mr. , that you are a very humble
Churchman." Then turning to the host he said, " I think we had better join the ladies."
The Bishop was enthroned in Christ Church, Montreal, on the 14th Sept., 1850. Immediately there- after he began the visitation of the scattered parishes of his extensive Diocese, and by his free and friendly intercourse with the clergy and their families, he won the hearts of all. In 1852, he held his primary visitation, and delivered his first charge. There were only fifty-two clergymen in his Diocese, and fifty of these were present at the visitation. The Church,
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as we have seen, was a good deal agitated by the controversies that were raging in England. "The Gorham case " and the surplice question were then to the fore, and were evokiDg not a little angry feeling on the one side and the other. The Bishop wisely passed them by, and addressed himself to the practical needs of the Diocese, and of the Church at large. He had been but a short time in the country, and yet he had grasped the actual status of the Church with a clearness which many distinguished men, brought up in the land, had not yet attained to. In speaking of the subject in his charge, he says — " While, spiritually, we are identified with the Church of the mother country, emanating from her, using the same Liturgy, subscribing the same articles, blessed with the same Apostolic ministry, visibly forming part of the same ecclesiastical body, and claiming as our own all her mighty champions, con- fessors, and martyrs, yet in a political sense, and as regards temporalities and everything that is under- stood by legal establishment, or as conferring special privileges above other religious communities, we are in a totally dissimilar situation. We exist but as one of many religious bodies, consisting of such persons as may voluntarily declare themselves to be members of the Church of England. There cannot be the slightest advantage or wisdom, but quite the reverse, in putting forward claims for special consideration, claims which, circumstanced as we are here, if they were to be granted to us to-day, it must be absolutely absurd for us to expect to maintain."
He further stated that while the political and legal position of the Church here was essentially different from that in England, and while we were thus deprived of the administrative power provided by the establishment at home, no organization adapted to our condition here had yet been provided. " We have
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been deprived of the ecclesiastical laws of England, and we have as yet no effectual means of self-govern- ment." He therefore threw himself with great earnestness into the movement, in which all the Bishops concurred, for the establishment of Diocesan and Provincial Synods. Toronto had already led the way in constituting a Synod, consisting of Bishop, clergy, and laity, and all the Bishops seem to have concurred in the wisdom of that constitution. Bishop Fulford writes in this first charge — " I most firmly believe that a provision such as is there recommended for the purpose of supplying sufficient means of self- government for the Church, would not only have the happiest influence on the Church at large, but would also strengthen the true and legitimate influence of the Bishop, and cause increased reverence and respect for his office and authority."
The Bishop of Montreal differed from his Epis- copal brother of Toronto in his aversion to claim for the Church of England the hereditary rights of an establishment, or to insist upon a disputed privilege. This policy was attended with the happiest results. He won respect from all, Roman Catholics as well as Protestants, by his declaration that "the Church of England in Canada, politically considered, exists but as one of many religious bodies," and therefore it was that all denominations, with a readiness amount- ing almost to enthusiasm, accorded to him the chief place in the religious and social community of Mon- treal, and they treated his office with a respect which it had never received before from the general com- munity. (F. Taylor.)
The common school question was another of the burning issues of that time, and Bishop Fulford, in the east, adopted a line altogether different from that pursued by Bishop Strachan in the west. The Athanasius of the west would not yield one inch.
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He regarded education as the development of the whole man, body, soul, and spirit; and believing that the Truth of God was the only mould by which human character could be fashioned, after the pattern of the perfect and pattern Man, he maintained that any system of education which did not make that truth the basis of its work, which did not at least include it in its necessary learning, was an inter- ference with the divine plan, and an insult to divine truth ; and so when no arrangement could be made for teaching even the generally accepted doctrines of the Christian religion in the public schools, he de- manded separate schools for his own people in cities and towns where they could be worked, and nearly all the clergy and a vast majority of the laity sup- ported his policy.
He of Montreal, however, took another view. He felt that as all education is only relatively perfect, therefore an imperfect education is better than no education at all. He saw that the very possibility of having any education for a large number of people scattered among the French settlers, depended upon the possibility of having public schools, and he saw that the possibility of having common schools in a country divided by such manifold forms of religious belief, could only be secured with difficulty and by compromise, and so he spoke appreciatively of the difficulty of the Government, and extended not only his sympathy but his assistance to those rulers con- stitutionally chosen, who were probably, he believed, as earnest as he was to promote the happiness and welfare of the country. " Let us," he said, " in effect not embarrass, but rather, if we may, let us help the Government ; let us show our anxiety to assist in the great work of educating the people, and not raise difficulties or objections because we cannot have everything our own way." The utterance of these
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sentiments conciliated the good-will and respect of the Government, and tended greatly to increase the Bishop's popularity. Whether they are consistent with true allegiance to the Governor of all is a ques- tion which we will not further discuss here.
During the first ten years of the Bishop's minis- tration the Church population increased from less than a fourth to more than a third of the entire non-Roman population of Montreal. Among the early plans of usefulness which he tried to carry out, was the establishment in Montreal of a Church school for girls, where the higher branches of learning would be taught, and where the truths of the Faith and their moral influence would be incul- cated and enforced. The work, as is usual with such enterprises, met with great disappointments and hindrances, and did not become finally successful during the Bishop's life.
The next step was the subdivision of Montreal into parishes. The cathedral was allotted a certain dis- trict, and two Canons were imported and appointed — the Rev. Henry Martyn Lower and the Rev. S. Gil son. They were able men, and became favourites in the Diocese. The Bishop had laid himself out, not to be the bishop of a party, or the patron of a sect, and so thoroughly did he shrink from being such, that he was accused of seeking to propitiate his enemies, at the cost of injustice to his friends, of acting weakly and partially, and of being manipulated by those whose doctrines and aims were very different from his own. At all events the result of his administration was, that the Diocese at his death fell under the control of his theological opponents, who are taking good care that it shall not soon fall back again. The policy that has since been pursued is the opposite of Bishop Fulford's. Men of his school, who are in possession of parishes, are kindly treated, but
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promotions are not for them, nor are vacancies or new missions supplied by men who will continue their work in their way.
Bishop Fulford was throughout his Episcopate very popular with the general public. This was in part the result of his just and generous treatment of those who differed from him, and in part the result of his ready sympathy and co-operation with all movements and Societies of benevolent, philosophic, scientific, or useful character. He was the frequent and popular lecturer at the gatherings of these institutes and Societies. When steps were being taken to provide Montreal with cemetery accommodation outside the city, Bishop Fulford won great applause by suggest- ing that denominational distinctions should not be perpetuated in the grave, by having separate burying- places, as at Toronto and elsewhere. As a result of this feeling he was asked to consecrate, and did consecrate, the whole of the General Burying-ground at Montreal.
In the midst of active preparations to carry forward the work of the Church throughout the Diocese, what looked like a great calamity befell the Church in Montreal. Christ's Church, the cathedral of the Diocese, was wholly consumed by fire. This led to the determination to change the site, and to build a church which might worthily be called the cathedral of Montreal This effort absorbed a large share of the Bishop's thoughts and energies for a long time. The corner-stone was laid on the 21st May, 1857, and the Bishop had the happiness to preach the opening sermon on Advent Sunday, 1859. As is usual with such undertakings, the expenditure far exceeded the estimated cost. An oppressive debt was the consequence. This pressed heavily upon the mind of the Bishop, and upon many besides, who with him were more immediately responsible for its
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contraction. The debt, it is true, was unavoidably incurred, but how to pay it was the question. The Bishop saw no way but one of diminished personal expenditure, and increased liberality on the part of Churchmen. He himself led the way by moving into a small house connected with the Synod Hall, which had been built for the official residence of the parish school-master. In this plainly furnished residence he lived on plainest fare, only giving such entertain- ments as his official connection with the Diocese made imperative, contributing, and inspiring others by his example to contribute, largely to the extinction of the debt they had incurred. Those days and months and years of personal sacrifice won their reward at last, for if we are rightly informed the cathedral debt was paid before the first great Bishop was called away.
The Bishop of Toronto led the way, as we have seen, in the establishment of Diocesan Synods. He was speedily followed by the Bishop of Quebec. The experiments were deemed sufficiently successful to warrant the extension and completion of the Synodal system. Accordingly, on the 23rd Sept., 1851, five of the Bishops of British North America assembled at Quebec, and after a week's deliberation drew up what has since been known as the Declaration of the Bishops of British North America. In this, after declaring in favour of Diocesan Synods as they now exist, they stated — " Thirdly, it is our opinion, that as questions will arise from time to time which will affect the welfare of the Church in these colonies, it is desirable that the Bishops, clergy, and laity should meet in council under a Provincial Metropolitan, with power to frame such rules and regulations for the better conduct of our ecclesiastical affairs, as by the said Council might be deemed expedient." They further say upon these grounds — " It appears to us
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necessary that a Metropolitan should be appointed for the North American Dioceses."
Petitions were at once presented to the Imperial Parliament for the establishment of such Diocese, and the appointment by Letters Patent of a Metro- politan. The Home Government, however, for one reason or another deferred action, until wearied with waiting, the Church, under the leadership of the Bishop of Toronto, obtained an Act of the Provincial Legislature, authorizing not only a Diocesan but a General Provincial Synod. The Act also conferred power to appoint a Metropolitan. A majority of the Bishops, however, petitioned the Queen to make the appointment. These petitions were graciously re- ceived, and in 1860, Letters Patent were issued, promoting the Rev. Francis Bulford, Bishop of Montreal, to the office of Metropolitan of Canada.
In 1861, the first Provincial Synod of Canada was held in the City of Montreal.
In 1865, the Metropolitan of Canada had the privilege of preaching the opening sermon before the General Convention of the Church in the United States, assembled at Philadelphia. He was also asked to take part in the consecration of Bishop Wainwright, and of his successor, Bishop Potter of New York.
These acts of interlacing authority and succession were reciprocated, for Bishop McClosky of Michigan took part in the consecration of Bishop Lewis of Ontario, and nine months later the Bight Bev. John Hopkins, Bishop of Vermont, assisted in the con- secration of Bishop Williams of Quebec.
About this time it was determined by the Govern- ment at home, acting upon the advice of the Earl of Carnarvon, not to issue any more royal mandates for the consecration of colonial bishops. The Canadian Church went free, and from that day to this has
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managed her own affairs according to her own will. It seems a thing almost inconceivable now, that the Church ever could have waited upon the will of the State, as in former times ; and it seems almost equally strange that the great men who guided her destiny then did not break their fetters long before the civil authority unloosed them.
During the third Triennial meeting of the Pro- vincial Synod, the Bishop of Ontario moved an address to the Archbishop of Canterbury, which says — " That we desire to represent to your Grace, that in consequence of the recent decision of the Privy Council in the case of the Essays and Reviews, and in the case of the Bishop of Natal, the minds of many members of the Church have been unsettled or painfully alarmed. ... In order, therefore, to comfort the souls of the faithful and reassure the minds of the wavering, we humbly entreat your Grace, since the assembly of a General Council of the whole Catholic Church is at present impracticable, to convene a National Synod of the Bishops of the Anglican Church at home and abroad, that we may meet together, and under the guidance of the Holy Ghost take such counsel and adopt such measures as may be best fitted to provide for the present distress."
The Archbishop himself was altogether inclined to such action as was thus asked for by the Canadian Church, and after consultation with his brethren on the Bench, he issued his mandate summoning the first Lambeth Conference of the Anglican Church.
As the address which gave rise to the Conference emanated from the Canadian Church, the Metro- politan of the Province was naturally expected to take a prominent part in the organization and management of the Conference ; and right ably did the Metropolitan rise to the duties of the occasion.
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His lordship's health had caused his friends some uneasiness before his departure for England, and those friends were greatly distressed to find that the alarming symptoms had rather increased than dimin- ished during his absence. Work needing Episcopal attention had naturally accumulated, he therefore lost no time in setting himself with energy to over- take it. On the 16th June, 1878, the annual meet- ing of the Synod of Montreal began its session. The Metropolitan preached, and delivered an address of unusual interest and power. Almost immediately after the close of the Synod he visited the Eastern Townships and attended "The annual Convocation of the University of Bishop's College, Lennoxville." The deep interest which he had always taken in that important educational Institution became increas- ingly conspicuous on this occasion, in which he spoke within its walls for the last time.
Afterwards his lordship made a confirmation tour through the Deanery of St. Andrew's, and as we learn from the published sermon of his chaplain, Canon Loosmore, " spoke to the candidates who were pre- sented to him for the laying on of hands with unwonted earnestness and fervour, as if his thoughts had even then ceased to be of the earth, and were the reflection of the Better Land to which he was fast hastening." (Eennings Taylor.)
Ten days before the time appointed for the meeting of the Provincial Synod, the Metropolitan returned to Montreal, and began to prepare for the meeting at which it was his duty to preside. But his work was done ; a sense of oppressive weariness overtook him, and he took to his bed, to rise no more. The Synod which he had summoned, assembled and carried on its deliberations in a room only separated by a partition wall from the house in which he, who had called it together, lay dying. When this became
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known, the Synod, after earnest prayer had been offered by Bishop Bethune for the dying Metropolitan, adjourned. When it assembled on the following day, the Metropolitan's chair was vacant. At six o'clock on the previoiis evening his soul had returned to God who gave it. The announcement of this fact was received with universal expressions of sorrow. Every class of the community gathered at his burial to honour his memory. Among them many of the ministers of the various denominations in Montreal, including the Jews, followed him to his rest ; and the tolling of the great bell of the Anglican Church was answered by the great bell of the Roman Catholic Church of Notre Dame. The authorities of the latter, like their Protestant fellow-subjects, paid spontaneous tribute to the worth and memory of Bishop Fulford, who, in spite of some mistakes, had established in the minds of his fellow-citizens the conviction that he was a man of just judgment, wise discretion, and all- embracing charity.
The Bitual Controversy raged with no little bitter- ness during the closing years of his life. It was debated with great warmth, but with no great in- telligence, in that Provincial Synod which was in session when he died. In his last charge to his Diocesan Synod he thus speaks on the subject —
" If there are excesses on the part of the so-called Ritualists, there are undeniably many sad deficiencies in the other extreme. The Ritual of the Church of England, if faithfully observed, is fully capable, whether adapted to the services of the noblest cathedral or minster, or to the humblest country church, of satisfying the wants and cravings of all her faithful children, without transgressing what Sir Robert Phillimore remarks, are the only orders given in the New Testament respecting ritual ; and they are of the most general kind, such as the directions
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of St. Paul to the Corinthians, 'Let all things be done decently and in order.' " And at the close of his judgment he says — " The basis of the religious estab- lishment in this realm was, I am satisfied, intended by the constitution and the law to be broad and not narrow. Within its walls there is room for those whose devotion is so supported by simple faith and fervent piety that they desire do aid from external ceremony or ornament, and who think that these things degrade and obscure religion, and for those who think, with Burke, that the offices of religion should be performed, as all solemn public acts are per- formed, in building, in music, in decorations, in speech, in the dignity of persons according to the customs taught by their nature ; that is, with modest splendour and unassuming pomp ; who sympathize with Milton the Puritan, and say that these religious rites
" Dissolve them into ecstacies, And bring all heaven before their eyes. "
Bishop Fulforcl had been appointed Metropolitan of Canada by Letters Patent from the Crown. Before his death the judgment in the Colenso case had decided that where there was a responsible local government, the Crown could not interfere directly with ecclesiastical matters. The Canadian Church was thus brought face to face with a difficulty which she had not anticipated. She was declared to be an independent voluntary association, occupying, in the eyes of the law, just the same position as any other religious body in the land, freed from all connection with and control by the Church in England, except such as she might choose to create by her own voluntary action.
This practical difficulty at once arose. The Diocese of Montreal had been constituted the Metropolitan See of Canada by the invalid Letters Patent of Bishop
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Fulford. That Diocese had also the same right as every other Diocese to elect its own Bishop. The Synod would naturally elect a Bishop whose con- viction would be in harmony with the prevailing sentiment of that Diocese, and when elected, if the intention of the defective Letters Patent were adhered to, he would become the head and superior of the Episcopate of Canada. After conference it was agreed between the Bishops and Synod of Montreal, that the Bishops should submit to the Synod the names of nominees who, if elected, would be accept- able to them.
In Nov. 1868, a Synod was held, which, after a session of several days, broke up without arriving at any result. The religious convictions of the House of Bishops and of the Diocese of Montreal were hope- lessly at variance. Another Synod was convened at Montreal on May 11th, 1868. The balloting for the first few days only seemed to disclose the same dead- lock. Again and again the Bishops sent down the names of all the Canadian Bishops. They unwisely, as it now seems, made known their decision not to submit the name of any priest of the Diocese of Montreal. As a matter of fact they did not submit the name of any priest of the Canadian Church. They, however, sent down, in addition to their own names, the names of the Bishops of New- foundland, Grahamstown, British Columbia, the Coadjutor of Newfoundland, and the following priests — The Dean of Norwich, the Rev. Dr. Hessey, the Rev. J. P. Cust, the Rev. F. Meyrick, and the Rev. H. Twells. The contest centred around Dr. Cronyn, Bishop of Huron, a decided Evangelical, and the Rev. F. Meyrick. A number of ballots were taken, which seemed only to evolve another deadlock, the Bishop securing a majority of lay votes, and the priest of clerical.
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After many days spent in the vain endeavour to reach a conclusion, the Bishops, on the motion, it is said, of the Bishop of Ontario, sent down the name of the Rev. Ashton Oxenden, Rector of Pluckney. On the first hallot, Mr. Oxenden was elected by a majority of both orders.
With genuine expressions of surprise and humility, Mr. Oxenden accepted the responsible office to which he was called, and was consecrated Bishop of Montreal and Metropolitan of Canada, on Sunday, August 8th, 1869, in Westminster Abbey, by the Archbishop of Canterbury.
The difficulties experienced in this first Metro- politan election led to the adoption of the present system, by which the dignity follows the individual whom the Bishops may choose as their Metropolitan, instead of being attached to a particular See to which the Metropolitan elect is transferred.
The new Metropolitan convened bis first Synod on June 21st, 1870. His primary charge breathes that spirit of humble, earnest devotion which charac- terizes all his publications. It is replete with wise practical suggestions, and overflows with missionary zeal. He states that there w^ere fifty-nine missions in the Diocese, only eight of which were self-sustaining. He pleads earnestly for the support and extension of this work, and urges the Diocese to take part in the great foreign mission work of the whole Church. He speaks with thankfulness of the general harmony of views existing in the Diocese, and of the soundness, faithfulness, and moderation Avhich for the most part marked the teaching of the clergy. He calls upon all to guard against running to extremes, and urges them, at the suppression of individual tastes, to strive after as great union and uniformity as was possible. He said —
" It is the policy of our great enemy to separate us
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from one another as widely as he can ; it should be our policy, our lioly and Christian policy, to close our ranks, and wage our warfare side by side. Our strength lies in united action, and if God is pleased to draw us nearer together by the attraction of a loving spirit, this will make us strong against our common foe, and stronger in the discharge of our spiritual mission. My desire is to act not as the Bishop of a section, but of the whole Church, and wherever I see zeal, earnestness, and devotedness of heart, I am disposed to overlook little differences, in order that I may help forward the great work of Christ."
In his charge, delivered at the opening of the next Synod, the Bishop expresses his thankfulness for the peace and harmony with which the Church has been blessed since his coming amongst them. He again urges the claims of his missions, the improvement of the stipends of the clergy, the formation of a Sustentation Fund, and the establishment of a Theo- logical College, for the special training of young men for the ministry, under his own eye. This has resulted in the establishment of the Montreal Theological College. He also strongly condemned the growing custom of advertising preachers and subjects as being derogatory to the dignity of the Gospel, and subversive of the true object of our gatherings to- gether on the Lord's day. The result of the Bishop's appeal in behalf of a Sustentation Fund was stated in his next charge to have reached £55,000 in a single year.
Referring to the recent visit of Bishop Selwyn of Lichfield, the Metropolitan says—" I cannot refrain from recording the fact, that one of our noblest English Bishops has visited us this year. Having spent his best days as the chief pastor of one of the most interesting Churches in the colonial field.
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He came among us as a father and brother, offering us his own warm and loving sympathy, and stirring us up to fresh zeal in our Master's service."
As regards the future, the Bishop says — " I am not content that our Church should remain in her existing position, I earnestly desire that her motto be, ' Upwards and Onwards ' — upwards as regards the growing piety and devotedness of her members, and onwards as regards fresh achievements in the service of the Lord. As a Church we must not stand still ; we must be ever growing and bearing fruit ; we must show more real earnestness in Church work, more aggressive boldness in widening the bounds and deepening the foundations of our spiritual fold. We must rise up to the duty of planting our faith on every foot of available soil."
The Bishop tells us that there were eighty-seven spiritual labourers in the Diocese when he was called to its supervision — seventy-nine in Holy Orders, the rest being catechists and lay readers. In the fervent, loving, religious, and encouraging charges which he addressed year after year to his Synod, he pleads with passionate earnestness for the increase of the clerical staff, and as a means thereto, for the increase of the mission fund. One scheme after another is adopted, and the result is generally the same — a deficiency both in money and men. But with cheerful, hopeful alacrity, he addresses himself to the old themes — the extension of the clerical staff, the increase of the mission fund, and the improvement of clerical incomes.
At length, under Dr. Lobley's vigorous principal- ship of the Theological School, a sufficient number of men for all present needs is obtained, but still he presses on to the occupation of new fields. The spirit of hopefulness and enterprise seem to mark the whole spirit of the Church at this time. In his eighth
N
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annual address to the Synod, the Bishop says — " I see much that may well rejoice our hearts, and call forth our tribute of praise. I may say with truth that the Church work is making itself felt, not only among ourselves, but in the neighbouring Dioceses."
At this Synod bje signified his intention of being present at the Pan-Anglican Conference, convened at the suggestion of the Canadian Church, and which was summoned to meet in the following July. The clergy of the Diocese had during these eight years increased from seventy-nine to ninety-nine ; six of these were on the retired list.
No hint is given in the Bishop's charge, or the minutes of the Synod, of its intention to resign the See of Montreal, and no explanation is to be found in the records of the succeeding Synod. The Bishop transmits from England an address to the Synod to be held in his absence, in which he says— "Some preparatory step will of course be taken with refer- ence to the approaching election of my successor." He concludes by expressing his thankfulness to the members of the Synod for the words of kindness addressed to him on taking leave of those whom God had committed to his care. And this is all the explanation that is recorded.
At a Synod convened on the 16th October, 1878, for the purpose of electing a Bishop of Montreal, Bishop Oxenden's formal resignation of the See was read. The only reason assigned was the conviction that his strength was no longer adequate to the satis- factory discharge of the onerous duties of this Diocese, over which he had presided for the last nine years. The Synod was speedily constituted, and the first ballot resulted in the election of the present Bishop of Montreal, the very Rev. Dean Bond.
At the meeting of the Synod held on the 17th June, 1872, the new Bishop delivered a long and able
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charge, which shows the eminently practical turn of his mind. The finances of the Diocese were chronic- ally in arrears ; the country was suffering from serious commercial depression. The Bishop therefore announced his determination that " there should be no further Church extension until our finances show the prospect of a sufficient surplus to warrant it. We must not," he said " administer a fund which has only a prospective existence." He therefore refused to ordain any new candidates for the diaconate. He announced his determination to visit the whole Diocese every year, and in spite of advancing years he has steadily adhered to his plan.
At the Synod of the next year, he announced that he had been able to take up the work of the Church extension again, and had already in that year ordained six deacons and four priests, and had admitted into the Diocese seven clergymen, and then he continues — "I have very great pleasure in informing you that we have paid our debts to the clergy. I cannot express my thankfulness that this stain on the honour of the Diocese is at last removed, and I trust I shall not live to see the repetition of so grievous a trouble."
The Bishop urges upon the Synod the speedy increase of the Sustentation Fund, as the hope of their being able to sustain many of their missions when the grants of the S. P. G. should, in a short time, be withdrawn.
The Diocese of Montreal, like most of the older Canadian Dioceses, had before this time attained to a fairly settled state of things, not unlike the state of the Church in the old land. It had, however, wide fields still to be occupied, and many parishes and missions so weak in numbers and in material re- sources as to be a cause of continual anxiety. In his address to the Syncd of 1881 the Bishop says — " The
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past year has not been marked by great local events in our Church ; our duties have been plain and con- tinuous. We have been seeking rather to hold the ground we possess, than to extend our operations." This even was no slight task. The Synod had fixed the minimum salary of deacons at 600 dollars a year, and of priests at 800 dollars. The Bishop com- plains that though commercial prosperity had returned to the land, the liberality of the members of the Church had not increased. The rule adopted by the Synod as to minimum stipends had not been kept, and he urges — " It is neither wise nor right to take advantage of a clergyman's necessities, in order to get from him the greatest possible amount of service for the least possible amount of pay." And in words which it would be well for people generally to lay to heart, he continues — " Our best men morally and mentally will not suffer such treatment a moment longer than they are obliged to, and unless constrained by the love of Christ, or by the circumstances of their lives, will leave us after a while. I am constantly invited to admit this or that stranger into the Diocese, on the plea that he is willing to accept the miserable stipend offered, while our good and tried men, our young and energetic men, are allowed to leave, seek- ing elsewhere the justice denied them at home."
To meet this growing danger, he again and again urges the increase of the Sustentation Fund and the Superannuation Fund for the aged and infirm labourers.
The Bishop is a man of practical earnestness and unflagging zeal, and so he did not long rest content with merely holding the ground. He set himself with steadfast purpose to extend the missionary operations of the Church, and so year after year, in his address to the Synod, he appeals with unwearied courage and cheerful hope for increased contributions
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to the Mission Fund. For a little while there is a marked improvement, and then a business depression, with its disheartening diminution in the treasury of God. Still the progress is onward. New missions are year after year being taken up. Continual pro- gress, the Bishop says in his last charge, is being made. Every year all the parishes and missions are visited. He reports 960 persons confirmed during the year 1890, more than double the number con- firmed during the first year of his Episcopate. The report of the Mission Fund, he says at last, is quite satisfactory, thanks being specially due to the increased liberality of the congregation of St. George's Church.
The other great objects of interest and anxiety during all these years are the Montreal Theologi- cal College, which from the first enlisted Bishop Bond's keenest interest. It is year after year re- ported as growing in strength, in numbers, in popu- larity and usefulness. The Bishop speaks of it again and again as his right hand in the work of his Diocese. In his last address he says — " I have nothing but good to say of it. It is the mainstay of the missionary work of the Diocese."
He therefore pleads for its liberal endowment. It was started by Bishop Oxenden, in imitation, no doubt, of the Diocesan Theological Colleges recently established in England for the special and final pre- paration of candidates for the ministry under the eye of their future Bishop. Such a course was almost necessarily forced upon the English Bishops by the mere apology for a special preparation supplied in the English Universities. The condition of things in the Church Universities of Canada is wholly different ; elaborate arrangement being made by a large staff of trained Professors for the efficient discharge of this work. Bishop Oxenden did not take in this difference
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of conditions, and so mooted this Theological College scheme. This was eagerly espoused by men who did not approve of the Churchly character of the training given at Lennoxville, and so the Montreal Theolo- gical College was stai-ted, pledged to the narrowest Evangelical basis, the continuance of the endow- ment being made dependent upon that basis being maintained ; the donor and his descendants being constituted judges of the fidelity with which that condition was being observed. This narrow basis, it was stated at the last Provincial Synod, would be withdrawn, and the whole foundation handed over unconditionally to the Bishop and Synod of Montreal. The College soon became affiliated with McGill University, an institution which had itself been founded and endowed by a Churchman, and intended for a Church institution, but which had afterwards been secularized. This University holds no doubt the highest literary place of any educational institu- tion in Lower Canada. It is held that a Theological College in connection with it, is far more fitted to supply the needs of the Diocese than the Church University at Lennoxville. It is no doubt growing into a place of great influence, and will probably be a great benefit to the Church in Montreal in future years. As McGill did not confer Divinity degrees, powers were sought from the local Legislature to enable the Theological College to confer such degrees. This was stoutly opposed by the authorities of the Church University, on the ground that it would multiply and debase divinity degrees. By the inter- vention of the Provincial Synod this dispute has been settled by the establishment of one board of examiners and one curriculum for all Canada ; the Metropolitan being made a University Sole for the purpose of conferring degi-ees on those who have passed the required examinations, and do not want to
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go to either of the Church Universities for degrees. Let us hope that a peaceful and prosperous future may be in store for all the institutions concerned.
The second object of Diocesan interest was the establishment and efficient working of the Dunham Ladies' College, which was suggested by the Bishop Strachan School for Girls, founded in 1867 by the writer of these memoirs, for the education of the daughters of the Church. The Montreal school has had a chequered career, and though working success- fully on Church lines is not now under the control of the Church.
A third object for which the Bishop frequently appeals is the " Church Home " for ladies in reduced circumstances. This is now in possession of suitable property, and has promise of a successful career.
Appeal is frequently made for the support of the French mission at Satrevois. This has lately been transferred to Montreal, a church set apart for its use, and a missionary speaking the French language put in charge of it. Its success is still an experiment. There are some in Montreal who regard it as a fore- gone failure. It is carried on on exclusively Protestant lines, and that, it is held, will never reach the French Roman Catholics. What is needed, they maintain, is the presentation of the Catholic aspects of the Church of England. At present, however, with the strong national and Roman feeling, there does not seem much prospect of anything but the Holy Roman religion receiving even a respectful hearing.
The Bishop constantly urged his clergy to take pains to instruct their people in the principles of the Church, and for this purpose to introduce catechizing into the public services. Bishop Bond realizes more fully perhaps than any other Canadian Bishop, the character of an overseer of the clergy, a leader and guide of the people. He is diligent, methodical, and
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incessant in his labours. He is animated by a spirit of unmistakable earnestness ; and though he was an old man when called to the Episcopal dignity, he has done great things for the consolidation and advance- ment of the Church in his Diocese.
Eeviewing, in 1886, the changed aspect of things during the previous twenty-seven years, he says — "We have more than doubled the number of our clergy, we have more than doubled the number of our church buildings, and our Church membership has at least increased in due proportion. Never was the Church of England in this Diocese numerically stronger or outwardly more prosperous than at the present time."
From the date at which these words were uttered, judging from the reports, the progress has been more marked since the delivery of that charge than in the previous years.
During the period of which we have been writing, the Diocese has been blest with a very able body of clergy. It is almost invidious to mention names : but a Diocese that has mustered on the roll of its preachers, a Balch, a Baldwin, a Carmichael, a Sul- livan, and a Dumoulin ; among its parish workers and influential men, a Thompson, a Looseman, a Wood, a Norman, a Norton, to say nothing of the Lindsays, Davidsons, Robinsons, and a host of noble men who have occupied the country parishes and missions, need not be ashamed to compare itself with the very foremost Diocese in the world. It would be strange indeed if the Bishop who led such a host could not speak of progress and prosperity.
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CHAPTER VIII.
THE DIOCESE OF HURON.
This Diocese was constituted in 1857 by the separation of the thirteen western counties of Ontario from the Diocese of Toronto. In July of that year, a meeting of the clergy and lay delegates resident within the proposed Diocese was held in London, under the Presidency of Bishop Strachan. There were present forty-two clerical members, and sixty- nine lay representatives of the various parishes. The Rev. Dr. Cronyn, Rector of St. Paul's Church, London, and the venerable Dr. Bethune, afterwards Bishop of Toronto, were the candidates proposed, and for whom ballots were cast. Dr. Cronyn was elected on the first ballot, by a narrow majority, and was consecrated by the Archbishop of Canterbury the same year. This was the first instance of an un- trammelled Episcopal election in any part of the English Church, for many generations, and it was the very first election in the Canadian Church.
Bishop Cronyn was born at Kilkenny, on the 11th July, 1802. He graduated at Trinity College, Dublin, in 1822, was ordained priest in 1827, and came to Canada in 1832. It is wonderful on what small and apparently accidental occurrences the whole after history of a Church or a country depend. The following account explains how Mr. Cronyn came to settle in London. His settlement in London
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has greatly affected the history of the Church in "Western Ontai'io, and indeed throughout the whole Province ever since.
" On a dull, chill November evening, in the year 1832, along the tmsh road which followed the Indian trail between the Niagara and Detroit rivers, just south of where the present city of London stands, there toiled in a rough lumber-wagon a weary, travel- stained family of emigrants, consisting of the Rev. Benjamin Cronyn, then just thirty years of age, his wife, and two young children.
" Circumstances and surroundings more depressing could hardly be conceived. After a seven weeks' voyage in an ill-found sailing-vessel from Dublin, they had arrived from Quebec, and were now pursu- ing their weary way to the Township of Adelaide, to bring the ministrations of the Church to the settlers there, who had been represented to Mr. Cronyn before leaving home as numerous and wholly without the services of an ordained minister. For days this solitary wagon-load had jolted along the narrow, devious track through the woods, the light of heaven only reaching them through the rift in the branches overhead, made by the newly cut-out road ; far from home and friends, in the midst of a wilderness, strangers in a strange land, night falling fast, and no apparent shelter near, the father's heart was sorely anxious for his delicate wife and little ones. From a solitary traveller they happened to meet, he inquired whether any shelter for the night was to be found in the neighbourhood, and then for the first time heard of the village of ' The Forks ' (London), distant about two miles to the north of where they were. Thither they made their way, and put up at a primitive hotel, designated by the title of ' the Mansion House.'
" So utterly worn-out was Mrs. Cronyn, that it was
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decided to rest there for a time. The arrival of a Church of England clergyman soon becoming known to the inhabitants of the hamlet, all were summoned to service on Sunday in a farm-building which served the purpose of the district court-house. The first house had been erected in London in 1827, just six years previous. On Monday a deputation of the inhabitants waited upon Mr. Cronyn, begging him to remain with them as their clergyman. Immedi- ately on this came entreaties from many couples in the neighbourhood to be married; some of them had long lived together as husband and wife, but had never had an opportunity of marriage by an ordained minister. Guided by one Robert Parkinson, familiar with the bush, they followed for days on horseback the blazed lines through the woods, stop- ping at the settlers' shanties, ' the parson ' per- forming many marriages, and oftentimes uniting the parents and baptizing their offspring at the same time. Among the early settlers in the township of Adelaide were many of education and refinement, whose antecedents unfitted them for the rough life in the bush, consequently great distress soon pre- vailed amongst them ; and during the first winter, on one occasion, Mr. Cronyn, with his friend Col. Curran, started on foot from London to Adelaide, twenty-six miles away, carrying a quarter of beef strung on a pole between them, for the relief of a friend amongst the settlers there. For the first few miles they made light of the load ; but it soon grew heavy, necessitating frequent stoppages for rest. Night came on, and the wolves, numerous, fierce, and daring in those days, scenting the raw beef, howled uncomfortably near. To add to their troubles they lost the trail in the dark, and were about to abandon the beef and endeavour to retrace their steps when they saw a light, and making for it found it pro-
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ceeded from a chopper's shanty, where, stretched on the floor, with feet towards a huge log fire, the choppers slept. They hospitably made room between them for the tired travellers, who lay down and rested there for several hours ; but were again on the march long before daylight, furnished by the choppers with a lantern. This for a time showed them the trail, and kept the wolves at a distance ; but soon the lantern went out, and they again lost their path, and the wolves howled dangerously near, when they were discovered by some settlers who were on the look-out for the expected succour.
" Soon after his arrival in London, Mr. Crony n was appointed to the parish of London, and in 1836, on the creation of the Rectory of St. Paul's, London, and St. John's, London township, was appointed by Patent from the Crown, Rector of both. The latter he resigned in 1842, and that of St. Paul's in 1866.
" A fearless horseman, he almost lived in the saddle in the early years of his ministry, endeavouring to compass the work of his almost boundless parish ; and being an expert swimmer himself, he would, if the weather was not too cold, boldly swim his horse over swollen streams that crossed his path. Naturally observant, he had acquired a wonderful store of general knowledge, and by example and precept he did what he could to improve upon the prevailing slovenly system of farming ; his knowledge of agricultural chemistry enabling him to demonstrate what could be gained by the judicious application of manures to the soil. As a judge of live stock he had few equals, and by his introduction of pure bred cattle, sheep, and pigs, he greatly improved the stock of the district, and added to his personal influence with the farmers. He had sufficient knowledge of architecture and building in all its branches to enable him to plan and construct any ordinary building ;
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and he was no mean engineer, which oftentimes proved most useful in assisting in the construction of bridges in these early days. Many times he accepted the position of path-master, in order to improve upon the ordinary mud roads of the country.
" The first St. Paul's Church, London, was a frame- building, erected in 1835, and is thus described in a book published in 1836 — ' The Episcopal Church, if we except the spire, which is disproportioned to the size of the tower, is one of the finest, and certainly one of the neatest, churches in the Province.'
" It was destroyed by fire on Ash Wednesday, 1844, and the foundation-stone of the present editice was laid by the Eight Eev. Jno. Strachan, Bishop of Toronto, on St. John's Day of that year, the military turning out in force, and the Artillery firing a salute of twenty guns. Pending the completion of the new building, the congregation worshipped in the old Mechanics' Institute, a frame-building then standing on the Court House Square. It was during service in this building on a Sunday, in April 1845, that the cry of ' Fire ! ' announced the commencement of the great fire, whereby 150 houses were destroyed.
" Chief Justice Eobertson (afterwards Baronet) was present ; the Psalms of the day were being read. The only exit from the hall was by one rather narrow staircase. On the alarm the people near the door began to go out. Mr. Cronyn kept on reading, the Chief Justice responding in clear, deliberate tones, until nearly the entire congregation had quietly withdrawn. Thus, by the presence of mind of the Eector and the Chief Justice, doubtless a panic and probable serious accident was averted. The fire had commenced in the Eobinson Hall, the principal hotel at that time, just across the square from where they were at service at the time. The Chief Justice's quarters were at the hotel, and his unselfish conduct
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in endeavouring to avert a panic nearly cost him his baggage, which he had barely time to secure, and at some risk. With a squad of Artillerymen under him, the Eector all day, until late into the night, worked at emptying the houses of their furniture ahead of the fire, which pursued them with relentless fury, alas ! in many instances licking up the piles of furniture which the salvagers thought they had left at a safe distance from danger. At nightfall the Rector reached his house, utterly tired out, with his Sunday suit ruined from the rough work in which he had been engaged.
" This most seriously affected the progress of work very near the Rector's heart at that time, viz. the rebuilding of his church ; so many of his people suffered by the fire, and were thereby disabled from contributing to the building-fund, that work on the church was almost discontinued for a time. Neverthe- less, the edifice was brought to completion, and opened the following year.
" Soon after, Mr. Cronyn was appointed Rural Dean of all west of London to the Detroit River, no mere sinecure with him, for he exercised an active super- vision of all the churches in the district." {Contributed.)
As the village grew into a town, and the town into a city, the character of his work gradually changed from that of extended itinerancy into the routine work of a settled city parish. Mr. Cronyn had, however, established a sort of patriarchal juris- diction among the men who came in to relieve him, first of one part and then of another of his extended mission. He was a man of grave yet genial manner?, overflowing with native Irish wit, and as a con- sequence was very popular amongst the settlers everywhere.
On his election to the Episcopate, he had, accord- ing to the traditions of that time, to repair to England
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for consecration. Naturally he visited his " Alma Mater" in Dublin, and had the degree of D.D. con- ferred upon him jure dignitatis.
The first Synod of the new Diocese was held in June 1858, and a constitution was adopted, which was a rescript in most particulars of that of the Diocese of Toronto.
The new Diocese addressed itself at once, under the leadership of its Bishop, to grapple with the missionary needs of the district. The thirteen counties compos- ing this Diocese now contains one hundred and forty- two townships, four cities, twelve towns (thirty-two incorporated), and a large number of other villages. Its eastern boundary, which was determined by the county lines, is very irregular, and ought to be readjusted in any future subdivision of Dioceses.
When the Diocese was first founded, a large section of it lying to the west and north of London — the See city — was only beginning to be settled. "Whole townships were still almost wholly covered with their primeval forests, and the roads were very much in the condition described in Bishop Strachan's journal quoted above.
The writer, whose mission embraced several town- ships in the north-eastern part of this Diocese, had to drive through ten and twelve miles of unbroken forests to reach some of his stations, and to travel stretches of corduroy road for four continuous miles. It is hardly possible to conceive the extent and variety of the material improvements that have taken place between those days and these. The forests have given place to cleared farms with waving orchards. The shanties have been supplanted by substantial houses. For the corduroy has been substituted the solid stone and gravel road. The swamps have been turned into the richest meadow- land, and towns and villages have grown up with
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surprising rapidity where, a few years ago, wolves had their habitation.
Bail way travelling was then limited to the southern part of the Diocese, now the whole territory is inter- sected to such an extent that there is scarcely a town of any size that does not possess its railway-station. The milder climate of this western section of the Province, the fertility of its soil, and the comparatively small area of unproductive land within its bounds, contributed to its rapid growth in population and wealth. This increase is easily exhibited in figures. In 1857, the entire population of the Diocese of Huron was 300,000, 70,000 of whom were members of the Church of England. These had increased, in 1881, to 719,900 and 118,757 respectively, while the assessed value of its property has become one-third greater than that of the Diocese of Toronto. The progress of the Church has been at least as remark- able. When Dr. Cronyn was consecrated, there were 43 clergymen in the Diocese, but of these only 40 were in active service. The number of constituted parishes and missions was 46, and there were 59 churches in the whole Diocese. The regularly organ- ized parishes were situated in the southern and central counties. The northern parts of the Diocese were almost wholly destitute of the ministrations of the Church, there being but one parish — that of Owen Sound— in the vast territory lying between Stratford and the Georgian Bay. During the 14 years of Bishop Cronyn's Episcopate the clergy in- creased to 93, the parishes to 88, and the churches to 142. This increase in the earlier years of the Diocese depended mainly upon the liberal assistance granted by the Propagation and Colonial Church and School Societies. The Bishop was convinced that this assistance would not be long continued, and so he at once organized a Church Society, after the model
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of that established in Toronto. Its chief work was to obtain subscriptions from all the Church people of the Diocese towards the suppoi't of the missionaiy clergy who were pushing forward into the new settlements. The Bishop devoted himself to the furtherance of this object, and his great ability as a persuasive speaker, and his consummate tact, did much to advance in this way the best interests of the Society he had founded. He was the ablest advocate of its claims in his Diocese, and he went everywhere preaching and speaking in its behalf. The same difficulty was, however, experienced here as in the older Dioceses, in obtaining the necessary supplies for maintaining and extending these mis- sionary operations. Every charge the Bishop de- livered teems with passionate appeals for help to uphold and extend this work. Sometimes there is a considerable increase in the contributions, and then a falling off again, and then the unwearying call for help. The work, however, progressed in spite of these difficulties and discouragements. Year by year the neglected territory was more occupied, and the Church extended, until the result above described was reached.
The most notable action of Bishop Cronyn's Epis- copate, and the one which has left the deepest mark upon the whole Canadian Church, was his attitude and action with regard to Trinity College. The origin and aim of that institution has been fully described in the history of the Diocese of Toronto. Bishop Strachan carried the Church throughout the country with him, and there was no outspoken oppo- sition ; but it was well known that Mr. Cronyn and several of the leading clergy living in the western part of the country, never quite approved of the action of Bishop Strachan. They were more than half persuaded that reasonable and fair terms for the
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Church could be made with the Government, and so they stood aloof from the effort that was being made to found and endow a Church University. This dis- content grew into whispered suspicion of the character of the theological teaching of the new College. And this suspicion broke out into open accusation of the unprotestant character of that teaching, by Bishop Cronyn, not long after his consecration. The answer to these accusations, by Provost Whittaker, was that while the teaching was characteristically Anglican, it was yet far within the limits permitted by the Church of England. The Bishop and his followers had, however, become thoroughly alienated, and they determined to set up a Theological College of the extreme Evangelical type in London.
Dr. Isaac Helmuth, who was a Jew by birth and education, but who had embraced the Christian faith in 1841, was brought from Lennoxville, where he was Divinity Professor, to London, to assist in this work, and was first made Archdeacon, and then Dean of Huron. He was a man of plausible manners and persuasive speech, and was employed by Bishop Cronyn in raising funds for the new enterprise. He visited England, and secured a sufficient sum to start Huron Theological College. He became himself the first Principal of that institution, and, being a man of great energy and good adminis- trative ability, he soon acquired great influence in the Diocese.
The Bishop seems to have been possessed with a consuming fear of Romanism. Every charge he delivered during these years was surcharged with warnings against the insidious spread of popery. He was not only averse to, but fiercely hostile against, the whole Oxford movement ; and every departure from the doctrines and usages with which the reign of Puritanism in the Church of England had made
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them familiar, was viewed with grave if not with trembling suspicion.
In 1871, the Bishop's health had so failed that he was obliged to ask for a coadjutor. In the election which followed, Dr. Helmuth was chosen by a con- siderable majority over his opponent, Archdeacon Marsh, whose able management of the Church Society had given him great influence throughout the Diocese.
The state of Bishop Cronyn's health was such that the whole care of the Diocese devolved at once upon the coadjutor. In less than a year Bishop Cronyn died, and Dr. Helmuth became Bishop of Huron by right of succession. He devoted himself with great earnest- ness to his work, and soon became very popular throughout the country. He found that there were still many townships unsupplied with the minis- trations of the Church. Following the example of the Diocese of Ontario, he secured the incorporation of the Synod, and had the entire management of the Church finances transferred to that bcdy.
There was great monetary stringency throughout the country from 1873 to 1878, and yet Dr. Helmuth was enabled to report an increase of 42 clergymen, 58 churches and missionary stations, 31 parsonages, and 5420 communicants, during the 12 years of his term of office. Within that period also he had ordained 76 deacons and 72 priests.
Bishop Helmuth's Episcopate was, however, speci- ally distinguished by his great efforts in the pro- motion of Christian education. In addition to the important services which he rendered in connection with the establishment of Huron College, he mani- fested such zeal and liberality in the establishment of the Helmuth Ladies' and Boys' Colleges, in the City of London, as will not soon be forgotten in the Dioceee of Huron.
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Bishop Helmuth resigned his See, and retired to England in 1883. The Bishop of Algoma, Dr. Sullivan, was almost unanimously chosen to succeed him ; he however declined the election in fidelity to his own missionary Diocese.
The Rev. Dr. Baldwin, the present Bishop, was then elected to the vacant See. From his boyhood Bishop Baldwin was distinguished for earnest devo- tion. He soon became known as a fervid preacher. After holding several other important charges he was made Dean of Montreal, and Rector of Christ Church Cathedral in that city, positions which he held at the time of his election to the Episcopate. He was a graduate of Trinity College, Toronto, and had been ordained both Bishop and Priest by the first Bishop of Huron.
Bishop Baldwin entered upon his work with all the essentials of Diocesan machinery ready to his hand. The Diocese is, however, still far from being ade- quately supplied with the ministrations of the Church, and the Bishop with fervid eloquence has several times pressed upon the Synod the paramount importance of providing by increased liberality for the pressing needs of the Church. Nor have his thrilling appeals been barren of results. During the first six years of his Episcopate, he has ordained 38 deacons, and has admitted 34 deacons to the priesthood. He has confirmed 8268 persons, opened 13 new churches, and consecrated 14.
Bishop Baldwin is a man of guileless life, of tender- hearted affectionateness, and of fervid piety, of the extreme Evangelical type. His people complain that he is not an administrator, and that the business of the Diocese depends for its efficient discharge upon other heads and hands than his. People are, how- ever, in these days prone to find defects in their rulers. Perhaps the deficiency is greatly exaggerated.
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At all events no man is likely to possess all the qualities and graces that go to make up a great Bishop, and surely godly earnestness is far the most important of those gifts. The complaint against Bishop Baldwin's predecessor was that he was all business, that he administered too much, and succeeded in finessing himself out of the Diocese. However that may be, the figures given indicate that there has been substantial progress under both administrations. The 4683 dollars contributed by the Church people of this Diocese in the year before its foundation has grown to an average annual contribution of 14,326 dollars.
The constitution of the Synod of Huron differs from those of other Dioceses, in that it has one large executive committee, instead of a number of smaller ones to manage its affairs. This committee consists of 60 members, and is elected annually by the Synod. From the members of the executive there is elected annually what is called the " Main- tenance and Mission Committee," with the Bishop as chairman. It is the duty of that committee to assess all the parishes in the Diocese for such sums as they are deemed able to give towards the support of their clergyman. This committee, it is hoped, will speedily increase the number of self-sustaining parishes. There is a general endowment made up of the Commutation and Sustentation Funds, and amount- ing to a little over 30,000 dollars a year. This, together with the annual collections for missions, constitute the Maintenance Fund, and are administered by the Executive Committee. From this fund the clergy, with the exception of those who are in self-supporting parishes, receive grants according to a graduated scale of salaries determined by the period of active service in the Diocese and the needs of the Mission.
The Diocese of Huron has an Indian population of
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over 7000 ; for the accommodation of these 12 churches have been erected. There are three native Indian clergymen in the Diocese, while several of these churches are served by white clergymen.
The present number of parishes and missions in the Diocese is 225, as against 46 at its inception ; the number of clergy 137, in lieu of 40 at the begin- ning. The number of churches 242, instead of 59 at first. Total annual contribution for parochial objects, 134,424 dollars.
THE CLERGY.
The first clergyman who laboured within the Diocese of Huron was the Rev. Richard P. Pollard, who was appointed to Sandwich in 1803, the same year that Bishop Strachan was sent to Cornwall. The war in Europe absorbed the attention of the mother country, and the population of Canada re- mained stationary till it and the American War of 1812 were ended, and yet Mr. Pollard reported that in his district on the Thames there were, in 1807, 500 souls without a minister, church, or school, while in another settlement there were 200 people in the same condition. And these were only instances of the destitution of settlements that were being made all through the country.
The Rev. Mr. Hough seems to have been the first clergyman appointed to the exclusive charge of the Mohawk Mission near Brantford. Of him Bishop Stewart writes — " Mr. Hough seems to me particu- larly suited to the duties of this mission. His benevolent and gentle disposition, and especially his firmness of character, of which while at Brantford I saw more than one instance, has gained for him the respect and attachment of the Indians." They were themselves of the same opinion, as they publicly
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expressed their gratitude to the Bishop for sending them so good a clergyman, and they say that his kindness to them and their children had already produced visibly good effects upon their habits.
The other chief men among the elder clergy, as far as the writer's memory goes, were the Venerable Archdeacon Brough, who had rendered yeoman's service to the Church as a pioneer missionary among the Indians of Manitoulin Island, amid the wilds of East Simcoe, and finally as missionary in London township and parts adjacent.
TheBev. William Bettridge, for many years Bector of Woodstock, who had spent his early years as an officer in the British army, was an# educated and clever man, of unusual culture and courtliness of manner. He exercised a wide influence over the Church life of that day, and especially amongst the refined society which at that time had settled around Woodstock. He was widely thought of as a probable candidate for the Episcopate.
The Venerable Archdeacon Evans, Bector of Wood- house and Simcoe, for many years carried on hard and extended missionary work throughout the sur- rounding townships.
The Bev. John Flood, for many years missionary to the Muncy Town Indians and to the white settlers in the neighbourhood of Delaware, has left behind him the record of a devoted life.
The Bev. A. H. Mulholland and the Bev. J. El wood, both afterwards made Archdeacons, had widely extended fields of missionary toil, the former at Owen Sound and the country stretching for sixty miles around it, for which he alone for long years was responsible ; and the latter at Goderich, with responsibilities not much more limited.
Archdeacon Marsh, who had had his share of pioneer work in the early days of his ministry,
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proved himself a master of organization and finance. To his methodical and persevering efforts the Diocese of Huron is indebted for its endowment, and to him more than to any one else it owes its first Bishop, and the stamp of Churchmanship that has prevailed in the Diocese ever since.
The Rev. George Salter, for many years Rector of Sarnia, and afterwards of St. Jude's, Brantford, was a graduate of Oxford, a dignified and refined man, who won the respect and affection of all who knew him. He was a good preacher and an earnest worker. His first years in Canada were spent as a missionary in the marshy townships lying along the St. Clair. Here he contracted annually recurring attacks of ague ; this brought on frightful and continuous neuralgia, which drove him from his parish, hindered his usefulness, and finally brought him to a premature grave.
The Rev. Dr. Townley, a friend and compeer of Mr. Salter's, was one of the prominent figures of the Church till the close of his long life. He had been a Methodist preacher in his early life, but being led into the Church rather by taste than conviction, his reading soon landed him on the highest level of the High Churchism of that day. He was a good-tempered and persistent controversialist, who fought many a battle for the Church in his day. He was a diligent worker in the mission and parochial field — a man of extensive reading, of clear convictions, and fearless courage, his good temper and genial hospitality made his very foes to love him.
The Venerable Archdeacon Nelles was one of the saintly men of the Canadian Church, quiet, retiring, devout ; he spent his long ministerial life as a missionary to the Mohawk Indians on the Grand River. His closing years were bright with the gladness of an assured faith. He passed at an old
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age from this life to that beyond with an exalting
joy- There were many more of that and of previous times — Johnson, and Mack, and Gunn, and Usher, and Pyne, and Dewar, and Caulfield, and a multitude more, who did their work earnestly, according to their convictions, and whose works do follow them. Among the younger men the most noted were a band of young Irishmen whom Bishop Cronyn induced to come with him on his return from his consecration. Among these were the present Bishop of Algonia, Dr. Sullivan ; the Dean of Montreal ; the Very Rev. Jas. Carmichael ; the Rev. Dr. Dumoulin, Rector of the Cathedral Church of St. James, Toronto. They are all men of great natural ability, who are specially distinguished for their elocpience and power as preachers.
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CHAPTER IX.
DIOCESE OF ONTARIO.
In 1862, the fifteen eastern counties of the Pro- vince of Ontario were separated from the old Diocese of Toronto, and formed into the long contemplated new Diocese of Ontario. This original territory was greatly enlarged in 1886 by the transfer from the Diocese of Algoma of the district of Mpissing, lying south of the Matawan River. The area of the present Diocese is almost exactly one-third that of England and Wales, equal to two-fifths of Ireland, or two-thirds of Scotland. It contains over 200 townships, and nearly 700 villages, hamlets, and post-offices, besides 25 incorporated villages, ten towns, and three cities. The population of the whole Diocese is now about 500,000. The territory which it embraces, though containing a large proportion of excellent farming land, was not so fertile nor so thickly settled as the western part of the Province. Hence great difficulty was experienced, and long delay occasioned in raising the necessary Episcopal endowment. Bishop Strachan had always desired and expected that the first slice to be cut off from his huge Diocese would be this eastern portion, but in this expectation he was dis- appointed. The western Diocese of Huron had out- stripped it. But now, on the 12th Sept., 1861, the election of its first Bishop, under the presidency of Bishop Strachan, took place in the city of Kingston.
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The Rev. John Travers Lewis, a distinguished gradu- ate of Trinity College, Dublin, was elected by a practically unanimous vote, in the thirty- fifth year of his age.
On the 10th of September of that same year the first meeting of the Provincial Synod of Canada took place in the city of Montreal. Bishop Lewis had not yet been consecrated, and so could not take his seat in the House of Bishops. He was, however, initiated into the mysteries of the Upper Chamber by being elected Secretary to that House. Through delay in issuing the Royal Letters Patent, which were still thought a necessary preliminary, his consecration did not take place till the Feast of the Annunciation in the following year, 1862. Dr. Lewis was conse- crated in St. George's Church, Kingston, by the most Reverend Francis Fulford, Metropolitan of Canada, assisted by the Bishops of Toronto, Huron, and Michigan, being the first Anglican Bishop ever con- secrated in Canada.
The history of the Church in the new Diocese reaches back to the very beginning of the permanent settlement of Upper Canada in 1784. The influx of the United Empire Loyalists and the disbanding of certain colonial regiments, notably Sir John Johnson's Royal Regiment of New York, supplied the Province with its first settlers. Of these, comparatively few were Church people. Even so late as 1792, when the population was estimated at 50,000, so competent an authority as the Hon. Richard Cartwright thought himself fully warranted in asserting " that in all Upper Canada there are not 100 families who have been educated in the Church of England. In the whole district of Lunenburg, which was afterwards known as the Eastern and Johnstown Districts, there was," he says, "one Presbyterian and one Lutheran minister, but no clergyman of the Church of England."
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In the district of Macklenburg, comprising what were afterwards called the Midland, Prince Edward, and Victoria Districts, there were two clergymen of the Church of England very much respected, and some itinerant Methodist preachers, whose followers were very numerous ; from which it appears that there were at that time only three clergymen in all Upper Canada, two of whom were in the new Diocese of Ontario. These two were the Rev. John Stuart of Kingston, and the Rev. John Langhorn of Bath, the date of whose arrival was 1786 and 1787 respectively. Mr. Stuart had, however, made a brief visit to Kingston in 1784, in the regular discharge of his duties as chaplain of the Royal Regiment of New York. During that summer he had made a tour through all the settlements of Loyalists, even as far as the Mohawk reservation near Niagara ; and taking Kingston on the return trip to Montreal, he remained there some days, baptized several children, and buried one. In less than two years he returned and settled permanently at Kingston, thus becoming the pioneer missionary of Upper Canada. Kingston and Bath then are the two oldest parishes in Ontario.
The next parish established was at Cornwall, to which on the removal of the Rev. Mr. Rucld, the Rev. John Strachan was appointed in 1803. About 1811 the Lutheran congregation at Williamsburg, with its pastor, the Rev. John G. Weagant, came over bodily to the Church, and this made the fourth parish within the limits of this Diocese. No further progress was made till 1814, when the Rev. John Bethune, a son of the only Presbyterian minister in the district of Lunenburg, was ordained at Quebec, and appointed missionary at Elizabethtown and Augusta. ' These were the only agents the Church had at work in the entire Diocese of Ontario, till after the war of 1812 — 1814. But wherever, all
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this while, non-Roman settlements were found, there the Methodist preachers, regular or local, were at work, and were naturally drawing into their com- munity those for whom the Church was providing no ministrations of her own.
Through the officers and men engaged in the war of 1812, the fertility of the soil and the moderation of the climate became known in the Mother Country, and large numbers of emigi-ants from the three kingdoms came pouring in, so that in ten years after the war the population of Upper Canada had in- creased to 157,930, nearly one-half of whom were settled in the Diocese of Ontario. Yet during this period only four new parishes were established, viz. at Belleville, Adolphinstown, Prescott, and Perth. On the death of Dr. Jacob Mountain, the first Bishop of Quebec, his successor, Dr. Stewai-t, pushed the missionary operations of the Church with vigour, and during the next ten years established twelve new parishes within this Diocese. Nine new parishes were added during the early years of Bishop Strachan's Episcopate ; but as he was unable to send a sufficient number of men into the new and rapidly filling-up districts, he devised a scheme to keep the people from losing heart altogether, and for checking the wholesale exodus from the Church which had now been going on for so many years. Into each of the frontier districts he sent a clergyman, who should continually travel from one place to another, looking up, visiting the church people, baptizing and cate- chizing their children, and holding occasional services as frequently as they could. This system was ex- tended throughout the whole vast Diocese of Toronto, and was continued for many years. No doubt it did something to retain our people ; but the writer, whose early years in the ministry were thus employed, found that very generally the establishment of one
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of these monthly, or bi-monthly services in any neighbourhood was the signal for a concentrated attack on the part of the numerous Methodist preachers. A revival meeting or a camp meeting was started in his absence, and when he returned he found a large number of his religiously disposed, but as yet uninstructed people gathered into the Methodist net. The result, however, of the travelling missions in what became the Diocese of Ontario was the addition of fifteen new-settled parishes to the thirty-one existing in 1849, bringing up the whole number of the parishes, within the limits of the new Diocese, to forty-six, as it stood at the election of the Bishop.
The Synod of the new Diocese was summoned at the earliest moment after the Bishop's consecration, and met on April 9th. The Bishop's primary charge impressed upon the Synod the necessity for immediate action, as regards the missionary work of the Diocese. He strongly urged the incorporation of the Synod itself as preferable to the formation of any irrespon- sible Church Society. "The vast missionary work before us," he said, " cannot be done unless the whole Church works as a unit." It is too solemn in its greatness to be thrown by us on the precarious charity of isolated parishes, or allowed to be depen- dent upon the popularity or unpopularity of a Society. The Church expects every parish to do its duty. We need, then, an organization, which must command the moral support of every bond fide Church member."
The noble ideal of duty thus presented to the imagination of the Synod by its youthful President could hardly fail to arouse enthusiasm for its states- manlike grasp of the situation, and to challenge respectful attention. Measures were at once taken for the incorporation of the Synod. This was effected
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by the passage of an Act of Parliament within two months of the inception of the scheme. The wisdom of this important step has long since been justified, not only by the smooth and effective working of the whole Diocesan machinery, but also by the fact that the example thus set by the Diocese of Ontario, has since been followed by similarly good results in almost every other Canadian Diocese. The Church herself has become one great missionary organization.
It was also at the suggestion of the Bishop that a thoroughly representative Board of Diocesan missions was organized by the Synod. This, too, has been generally imitated in the other Dioceses. The Bishop of Ontario further devised a scheme of missionaiy deputations, for the purpose of holding missionary meetings in the several parishes and congregations during the winter, five clergymen being appointed for each Rural Deanery by the Bishop, in annual succession, for the purpose of thus making known the pressing needs of the Church, and if possible drawing into active co-operation in the missionary enterprises every member of the fold. It is to the loss of the cause that this scheme has not also been adopted in all the Dioceses of the country.
The total population of the Diocese at the conse- cration of the first Bishop was 373,635, the rate of increase for the previous twenty years averaged 10,000 per annum. The Church population in 1861 was 81,383. There were at that time only forty-six parishes and missions within the whole Diocese, and six of these in the cathedral city of Kingston . and its immediate precincts. Eleven were scattered along the shores of Lake Ontario and Bay of Quinte, four were established along the second range of townships north of this bay. Twelve stretched at immense intervals along the banks of the St. Lawrence and Ottawa Rivers. The remaining thirteen were scat-
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tered at wide intervals through the western town- ships. In a large part of this inlying district, nearly one-third the size of England, the Church was wholly unrepresented ; and yet, within this territory it is estimated there were settled not less than 50,000 members of the Church. Year by year, while this want remained unsupplied, large numbers of these were drawn away to unite themselves permanently with some body of Christians, who claimed and won their allegiance on the ground that they were " sound Protestants," and preached the same Gospel. How to bring these thousands within range of regular pastoral oversight, and how to keep pace with the rapid development of the country, were the difficult problems which the young Bishop had to face.
The total number of clergymen in the Diocese at its formation was fifty-five; but death, removal, and infirmity reduced the number in a few weeks after the Bishop's consecration to forty-eight, seven of these were chaplains or curates ; and one lately arrived in the country was so aged as to be incapable of effective work. So that with forty men, the General set out to supply the needs of two hundred townships (each about twelve miles square), and with such energy and efficiency did he work, that in two years, at the Synod of 1864, he announced that the staff of forty had increased to seventy-three.
The question of the maintenance of the clergy gave reasonable grounds for grave anxiety. The help extended by the societies at home, and by the Government in the struggling days of the first settlements of the country, was a great beneficence at the time ; it had, however, this deleterious effect, that it trained the Church people into dependence upon external aid. The clergy, for the most part, did not ask and did not receive any considerable part of their income from the people ; add to this, that
EASTERN CANADA AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 225
the generation of clergy now nearly passed away, consisted largely of men possessed of considerable private means, for whom the income derived from the commutation afforded a sufficient stipend, making them comparatively independent of the contributions of their parishioners, and so the Church had little or no revenue derived from the offerings of the people. The vicious system of selling pews was then widely prevalent, and so when churches were erected, the subscriptions to the building fund were, in many cases, regarded simply as loans to be repaid out of the sale of the pews as soon as the building should be ready for use. It will not be surprising that in such a condition of things, people had never been awakened to any true sense of responsibility, even with regard to Diocesan funds. The total contribu- tions for all Diocesan (as distinct from local) purposes, from the whole territory now constituting the Diocese of Ontario, during the twenty years preceding July 1862, amounted to only 24,580 dollars, an average of 1229 dollars yearly. The average now from the same territory is 35,000 dollars a year.
" The thought seems scarcely to have dawned upon the mind of the great mass of Church people that they owed any duty to the Church, beyond that of receiving her ministrations, and attending the services provided for them. Of the forty incumbents of Ontario, at its inception twenty-seven were in receipt of stipends from the commutation fund, ranging from £75 to £200 per annum. One was largely maintained by a grant from England. Twelve others were receiving from £150 to £250 from the mission fund of the Diocese of Toronto. These grants terminated six days after the Bishop's consecration. These twelve parishes then stood in urgent need of assist- ance from a Mission Fund, which, as yet, had no existence, and the list was soon swelled by the
p
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addition of eleven others, as they were one by one deprived of the services of stipendiaries of the com- mutation fund. In fact, not more than seventeen of the original parishes have proved equal to the entire support of their clergy, without aid for a longer or shorter period from some extraneous source.
" Hence a Diocesan Mission Fund became an urgent necessity, not only for opening up new fields, but also for keeping alive a large proportion of existing parishes. Of the forty-six parishes only nineteen were provided with parsonages. There was an average of about three churches to every two parishes, or about seventy in all, possibly some four or five more, if some very temporary log or frame structures in a ruinous condition be included. Far the greater number of even the seventy churches were of a temporary character, rude in style, cheap in material and structure, and requiring soon to be replaced by edifices more suitable for the celebration of Divine Service " (Rev. A. Spencer).
The progress made during the twenty-nine years that have elapsed since the consecration of the Bishop will be best seen by a comparison of the state of the Diocese then with its present condition and prospects. The average number of churches is now about two for every parish. But both parishes and churches have far more than doubled, there being now 115 parishes and 223 churches, besides ten or twelve mission school-houses. The parsonages have grown from twenty-two to eighty-two. Several of the old parsonages have also been rebuilt ; while of the churches twenty-four have been rebuilt, and many others restored and improved, so that only a few of the temporary structures of twenty-eight years ago now remain. The rate of progress has been for the past eighteen years two new parishes, and for the last nine, three new parishes a year. The parsonages
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have averaged two, and the churches six a year, during the whole period of Dr. Lewis' episcopate. In addition to the churches and chapels regular services are now held in not less than sixty school houses, halls, and other buildings. Hence in twenty- eight years the number of distinct congregations in the Diocese has grown from about 100 to about 282. This shows substantial progress ; but there are still enormous arrears to be occupied and work to be done before the 200 townships are adequately supplied with the opportunities of worship. There ought to be on an average, four churches to each township, or 800 in all, so that not half the work of extension is yet accomplished, though thirty years have fled since it was first vigorously taken in hand.
In his charge to the Synod in 1883, the Bishop discussed at some length the state of the Church with reference to the somewhat disheartening revela- tions of the census of 1881. He pointed out the real cause why the Church not only in the Diocese of Ontario, but throughout the whole province, has not kept pace with the growth of the population. After showing how large a proportion of those returning themselves as members of the Church, must of necessity be outside the range of the ministrations of the clergy, how large a territory still remained unoccupied by the Church, he added, " There is room for reflection here, and a trumpet call for more missionaries, and larger donations to our mission fund." The Bishop then showed how little cause there was for surprise at what the census revealed, the result being what any one who knew the facts must have been prepared for.
He says, " In the generation now passing away, a very large number of the old settlers, while never attending the Church's services, for the best of all reasons — that there were none to attend, — and though
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attending other religious services, yet always called themselves and their families members of the Church of England. That generation either bas passed or is passing away, and the rising one, through our neg- lect to provide them with the ministrations of religion, had no hesitation in calling themselves by the names of the denomination that has come to their relief. But though the Church has sustained great losses in this and other ways, she is not without her com- pensating gains. The lines of demarcation between the Church and the denominations are more definite than they used to be ; we have fewer heterogeneous and fewer nondescript churchmen nowadays than we used to have, and this is a source of strength. For my part, I do not estimate the strength of a Church by its numerical superiority, but rather by the intensity of the conviction with which her members hold to her doctrines. That intensity is, thank God,
growing apace Formerly defections from the
Church were matters of everyday occurrence. The tide has now set the other way, five per cent, of those confirmed by me in the last twenty-one years were converts to the Church, and very many of them persons of rank and intelligence, who knew why they became Churchmen. Hence when it is considered how large a number have been confirmed and become communicants, we must see that the Diocese has not been withovit vitality." This vitality is abundantly evidenced by the fact, that while the total contribu- tions for all Diocesan objects, for the twenty years previous to July, 1862, amounted to only 24,000 dollars, the total contributions for the same objects during the next twenty-seven years amounted to 301,526 dollars ; and while the annual collections for missions during the first three years of Bishop Lewis' episcopate amounted to 4,500 dollars, the annual collections during the last three years exceeds
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14,000 dollars. Adding to this the large sums raised annually in each parish for the direct support of the incumbent, for current expenses, for local improvements, Church buildings, &c, we are able more fully to appreciate the self-denying efforts of the people to extend and establish the Kingdom of God among them. There is every reason to feel encouraged by the success with which those efforts have been crowned. There is substantial proof on every hand of the firm foothold which the Church has obtained in the territory constituting the Diocese of Ontario, and especially at the accelerated growth which has marked these latter years, and the activity and zeal that are now being manifested in working the parishes and missions of the Diocese. The co- operation of the laity in the practical working of the Church is no longer mere theory, but is welcomed and utilized in every part of the Diocese.
The Diocese of Ontario does not contain the best land of the Province, and the inhabitants are not as well off as in Toronto or Huron, and yet the work has gone on perhaps with steadier progress than in either of these Dioceses. The clergy have all along been of one mind, and that mind has been decidedly of the moderately high Anglican type. This has given unity to their plans, and strength to their efforts. There has been no distracting, weakening party disputes. And so while there have been among them hardly any men who have been dis- tinguished above their fellows, either for learning, ability, or zeal, there has been a high average main- tained ; and so, even through these latter years, when the Bishop, through growing infirmities, has been unable to give much attention to his Diocese, the united Brotherhood standing shoulder to shoulder has remained true to him, and has carried the standard steadily forward. May God bless them
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and guide them in the long, hard struggle that is yet before them.
THE CLERGY.
The clergy of note who took part in the pioneer work of this Diocese were— the Rev. John Stuart, born in the year 1736, in the State of Virginia. His father was a rigid Presbyterian, who drilled his children every Sunday in the Shorter Catechism, and then in the Confession. Young Stuart was repelled by its appalling Calvinism, and after examination made up his mind to seek orders in the Church of England. His father after a time reluctantly consented, and he sailed for England, as all men of that time desiring orders had to do. He returned to Philadelphia in the full orders of a priest in 1770. The first seven years of his ministerial life were spent amongst the Mohawks at Fort Hunter. Then the Revolutionary War broke out, and Mr. Stuart openly avowed his allegiance to the King. After a long course of injury and ill-usage, as well from the new authorities as from the populace, he escaped into Canada in 1781, and was soon afterwards appointed to the Chaplaincy of a Provincial Regi- ment. Mr. Stuart felt a warm and affectionate interest in the Indian tribes, loyalists, and voluntary exiles like himself, and now again brought within reach of his ministrations. He visited their settle- ments with as little delay as possible. In writing to the Society an account of his first service among them he says —
■ " I never felt more pleasing sensations than on this solemn occasion. To see those affectionate people from whom I had been separated more than seven years, assembled in a decent commodious church, erected principally by themselves, behaving
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themselves with the greatest outward devotion and becoming gravity, filled my heart with joy."
Before leaving he baptized 104 infants and five adults. He then visited Cataraqui (now Kingston) and the Bay of Quinte, instructing and baptizing all whom he could reach. Two years later he returned and settled at Kingston, his mission embracing many townships, which he visited periodically.
The next year, feeling that he alone could give the newly-appointed Bishop of Nova Scotia information about the condition of things in Canada, he set forth, in company with the Bev. John Langhorn, on a journey of over 400 miles to attend the visitation at Quebec. It took them five weeks to accomplish it. The next visitation was in his own parish at Kingston, by Bishop Mountain in 1794, when several Scottish Presbyterians avowed their conformity to the Church, and received confirmation by the Bishop. He says there did not exist in the whole parish any party or faction against the Church.
He made annual missionary tours, 150 miles east of Kingston to Cornwall, and as far west as the Indian settlement on the Grand Biver. He is described by one who knew him well as a very fine elderly man of lofty stature and powerful frame, and of somewhat stately bearing, as conceiving him- self the lineal descendant of the legitimate monarch.
He was subject to occasional attacks of gout, and when the attacks came on he walked into the lake and stood there some time to soak his shoes and stockings, and then walked at a swinging pace until they became quite dry. This he found an immediate, safe, and complete cure. Chief-Justice Sir John Beverley Bobinson writes of Mr. Stuart — " He had been an intimate friend of my father's during the five or six years that our family lived in Kingston. My father became indebted to him in the course of
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some transactions about land, and had given him a bond for the amount. I well remember his coming to our house near York, a short time after my father's early and sudden death, and destroying in my mother's presence the obligations of my father, declaring that he would never consent to receive any part of the amount. Then, as he was returning, he strongly urged my mother to allow him to take me with him, that I might attend Mr. Strachan's school just opened at Kingston. I went, and spent three years in his family, treated as tenderly and kindly as if I had been his own son."
No clergyman could be more universally beloved than he was by his own people, and between him and the members of other religious communities there was always a kindly feeling. " I have seen no one who came so fully up to the idea one is led to form of a fine old Roman — a man capable of enduring and defying anything in a good cause, absolutely in- capable of stooping to anything in the least degree mean or unworthy."
The Rev. John Langhorn, the second missionary of Upper Canada, a Welshman, educated at St. Bees, arrived at Kingston on the last day of Sept. 1778. He had great difficulty in reaching his destination. After long waiting at Quebec he was only able to get passage on a sloop carrying Government stores ; amongst others 100 barrels of gunpowder. No fire was allowed on board. They ran aground in the river, and were twelve days reaching Montreal. From Montreal he had to walk to Lachine, and thence up the river, sometimes on foot, and sometimes in an open boat. The first night he slept in a hay-mow, another night on a bare floor without covering; "an- other night," he says, " I had my abode in the woods, but I could not lie clown, as it rained," and thus till he reached Kingston. Mr. Langhorn was appointed
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Missionary on the Bay of Quinte, where about 1500 people were living. " Four-fifths of these," he says, " were dissenters of nine or ten different denomin- ations." They were scattered over a country of forty miles square. He had about ten different congre- gations whom he visited regularly on foot. He never kept a horse; he used to sling his surplice and necessary outfit in a knapsack on his back, and so set forth on foot to visit his scattered flocks.
For the first two years he had no other provision than the £50 allowed by the Society. He used to call upon every new family that came into the district, and so won many estranged ones back to the Church. He was quite indifferent to the bodily comforts of bed or board. On one occasion, failing to reach the house where he was accustomed to stop till after the family had retired, he made himself a bed of straw in a farm wagon rather than disturb them, where he was found fast asleep when they went to their work in the morning. At every service he catechized the young and taught them their prayers in the face of the congregation. He was bold in rebuking vice, and strictly enforced the discipline of the Church, excluding evil-livers from the Communion. He had a strong dislike for all dissenters, Roman and Pro- testant ; he would not eat with their ministers, nor walk on the same side of the road. An old Presby- terian minister living at Fredericksburg had much respect for Mr. Langhorn's honesty and earnestness, and had made repeated endeavours to be on brotherly terms with him, but his advances were invariably repulsed. " One day," he says, " riding on horse- back, when the roads were exceedingly bad, and walk- ing a labour, I overtook the old gentleman in a wood, and much of our roads then lay through the woods. He appeared much exhausted with walking, and well might he be, for there was a wall of trees on either
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side, which prevented the circulation of the air, and the sun's rays were pouring down with great intensity. Now, thought I, his reverence is fatigued, and I will avail myself of the opportunity of making friends with him by offering him my horse ; so I rode up and addressed him, 'Good-day to you, Mr. Langhorn.' He soon gave me to understand that he was not obliged to me for my salutation. However, I thought at all hazards I would carry out my intention, and so proceeded — •' It is a very warm day, sir, and the roads are bad, and you appear fatigued ; allow me to offer you my horse.' He again stopped, and eyeing me very seriously, said, ' Sir, you are a promoter of schism in the flock of Christ, I cannot therefore have any intercourse with you, much less accept any favour from you.' So I left him." No wonder that he was described by the Bishop of Nova Scotia as uncouth, and little acquainted with the world, but as a conscientious and honest man. Whenever he entered the house of a Churchman, he gave the Apostolic Benediction, " Peace be to this house and to all that dwell in it." The Dissenting teachers here used to take advantage of his rough exterior and want of fluency of speech to attack him on some controverted passage. This used to annoy him at first, but he soon hit upon a remedy. He carried about with him a pocket edition of the Greek Testament, and when any preacher attempted to entrap him in a controversy, he would hand him the book and ask him to read that passage in the original, and then when he could not, Mr. Langhorn would say, " You see, my good friends, the folly of listening to a teacher who cannot read the language in which the New Testament was written." They soon ceased attacking him.
For his health's sake and to brace his nerves, he used to bathe every morning in Lake Ontario, and
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this practice he kept up during the coldest days of winter, even when the ice was two feet thick, and he could only get his morning bath by diving through the holes which had been made for the purpose of watering the cattle. But whatever might be said of his eccentric or uncouth manners, it was universally allowed that he was a zealous, devoted, humble- minded missionary, and his earnest labours have left their mark in many a life and home.
It is not possible in the space allowed to pursue these biographical records. The lives of such pioneers of the Church as the Rev. J. Archibold, R. D. Cart- wright, Salter Mountain, W. Herchmer, Paul Shirley, Harris, Campbell, Greir, Rogers, Harding, Patton, Bleasdale, and many others are full of personal and historic interest ; but their record, as far as it may be recovered, and that of the writer's many able and devoted contemporaries, must be left for some future and less limited history to detail.
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CHAPTER X.
This Diocese was founded in 1873. Prior to its creation as a separate jurisdiction, like Huron, Ontario, and Niagara, it had formed part of the Diocese of Toronto. During this period its population consisted chiefly of Indians. These were congregated for the most part in the Christian and Manitoulin Islands, at Garden River, Sault Ste. Marie, Nipigeon, and Prince Arthur's Landing, The present Archdeacon of Magara, Dr. McMurray, began his ministry as a missionary to the Indians at Sault Ste. Marie sixty years ago. The Archdeacon has given a graphic description of his appointment and journey thither.
"An effort," he says, "had been made to establish a society for the conversion of the Indians. A con- siderable sum was subscribed by the members of the Church, and in conjunction with assistance rendered by the Government, under Sir John Colborne, an Indian Mission was determined upon. I was sent for by the Governor, and informed that it was his intention to establish missions for the Indians on the north shores of Lakes Superior and Huron ; that I had been selected for the work, and that my head- quarters were to be Sault Ste. Marie. I remonstrated, and told his Excellency that I was only twenty-two years of age, not old enough for orders ; and further, that I had never heard of Sault Ste. Marie. He sent
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ine to the Surveyor-General, with a request that he would point out to me the head-quarters of my mission. After a careful examination of the then surveys of all the places north of York, the Sault (as it is now called) could nowhere be found. I returned to his Excellency with this report. He then in- structed me to go to Buffalo, and thence to Detroit ; and that I would be able there to determine the locality of my future residence. Following these instructions, I left York on the 20th Sept., 1832, with the feelings one would now have on setting out for the North Pole, and after a long, lonely journey I reached the Sault on the 20th of October following — just one month on the passage which can now be accom- plished in thirty-six hours." This was the first effort to establish missions in the great North-West. For six years Dr. McMurray continued to labour in this far-off and lonely out-post.
The late Archdeacon Brough was another of the pioneer missionaries of Algoma. Long before there seemed to be any probability of a separate Diocese established there, he went as a missionary to Mani- touawning in the Island of Manitoulin, about the same time that Dr. McMurray went to the Sault, and laboured among the bands of Indians that con- gregated in that neighbourhood. He afterwards removed to the neighbourhood of the present town of Orillia. After a while he removed to London Town- ship, and continued to exercise his ministry there till the close of his long life.
He was succeeded at Manitouawning by the Rev. Dr. O'Meara, who for twenty-one years lived among his Indian congregation, one hundred and fifty miles beyond the bounds of civilization, seldom visiting the frontier, which for the greater part of this time could only be reached in summer by means of a bark canoe, and in winter by dog-sleighs and snow-shoes. He
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translated the Prayer-Book and many parts of the Bible into the Ojibbawa language, working on through all these years with patient cheerful con- tentment. He was finally appointed to the Rectory of Port Hope, where he lived until his long and active ministry was terminated by an almost instantaneous death. The bands of Indians to whom he ministered so long have been for the most part scattered, and there is hardly a trace of his work left among the Indians of the Manitoulin to-day.
Dr. O'Meara was succeeded in his work by the Rev. Peter Jacobs, a half-breed, a gentle, earnest man, who was very successful in his work among his own people. He, however, after a few years fell a prey to consumption, the dread disease so fatal to his race.
The Rev. James Chance, an enthusiastic English- man, carried on the work at the same time among the Indians of Garden River and Sault Ste. Marie. He soon acquired a knowledge of the Indian language, and was able to speak to the people in their own tongue, and so acquired great influence over them. After some years he removed to the Diocese of Huron, and is now Rector of an important parish there. No suitable successor was found for him or for Mr. Jacobs, hence the small results of all their efforts that remain for the Church to-day.
Algoma being a Missionary Diocese, its Bishop is chosen by the Provincial Synod. When therefore the Diocese of Algoma was first set apart in 1873, that Synod elected the Rev. Canon Dumoulin, now Rector of St. James' Cathedral, Toronto, to be the first Bishop of the new Diocese. After some hesita- tion he declined the appointment, and the next year the Rev. J. D. Fauquier, incumbent of Zoora, near Woodstock, was elected. The new Bishop was a man of refined feeling and courteous manners; humble-
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minded, devout, full of faith and of good works. He was not naturally an able speaker, but he devoted himself with such simple-hearted earnestness to the duties of the office to which he was called, that he soon became an efficient administrator, and won the hearts of all his people by his gentle, loving ways. He had in a high degree the character of fatherliness about him, was so sympathetic and tender-hearted, that few men have ever left behind them a memory at once so loved and so revered.
During the eight years of his episcopate the number of clergy increased from seven to fourteen, and that of church buildings from nineteen to forty- two. But the good Bishop's faith and patience were sorely tried during his whole episcopate by a com- bination of difficulties. In the first place the Diocese is of such vast extent, stretching along the shores of Lakes Huron and Superior, and away through the rocky woodlands to the Lake of the Woods, a distance of not less than 1200 miles, and running back in a limitless way to Labrador and the Hudson Bay. The region is for the most part an unbroken forest, with scattered bands of Indians here and there throughout its vast extent. The white settlers are gathered for the most part at favoured spots along the shore and on the numerous islands. During the episcopate of the first Bishop there were no railways in the Diocese, now it is traversed through its whole length by the C. P. R., and the Sault line runs across a large part of it. There were steamers in the summer in those early days, but as they did not touch at half the places the Bishop wished to reach, he had to perform the greater part of his necessary journey- ing, constantly exposed to severe weather and great perils, in an open boat. Then the smallness of his own income, and the scantiness of the funds placed at his disposal by the Church, filled him with continual
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anxiety for the support of the scattered missionaries. Then, again, there followed him through all his journeyings the sorrowful remembrance of bis suffer- ing wife, a lady of unusual refinement and ability, but who for the last twenty years of her life was an almost helpless invalid. And last, but not least, among his trials, tbe fact that he himself was suffer- ing from a painful internal disease, of which no one outside his own family was ever aware, until, the close of Dec. 1881, it almost instantly terminated his earthly life.
Six months after the death of Bishop Fauquier, a special meeting of the Provincial Synod was held in Montreal, and the Rev. Dr. Sullivan, Rector of St. George's Church in that city, being nominated by the House of Bishops, was almost unanimously elected by the lower house. Dr. Sullivan was known far and wide as a man of great ability and acquirements. He stood in the very forefront of American preachers, and so, as will be readily understood, he had to make great sacrifices of income, social advantages, and influence, in accepting the Episcopate of rockbound Algoma ; but without hesitation he responded to the call, and has devoted himself with unflagging earnest- ness, for ten years now, to the discharge of the duties of the chief shepherd of those few sheep in the wilderness. He says that wherever he went he found his predecessor's name familiar as a household word, and his picture hanging on the walls of hundreds of its lowliest log-houses.
The whole population of the Diocese does not exceed 85,000. These are scattered along the coves and rivers, and on a few of the more fertile islands. Settlements are now being formed at intervals along the railways, and at mining locations ; but with the exception of a few business men at the chief centres, the people are too poor to maintain the Church by
EASTERN CANADA AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 241
their own unaided efforts, and what is more dis- heartening is, that there is not much prospect of improvement. The Church in Algoma will always be dependent upon the sympathy and help of the brethren more favourably situated than they are. Manitoba and the North-west are every year drawing away large numbers of the farmers, nor can any one who knows the two countries wonder at it, or blame those who go. The mineral resources of the country are now being developed, and silver, copper, iron, and nickel are being found in such quantities as to give promise of many flourishing mining towns springing up in the Diocese.
During the first seven years of the present Bishop's episcopate, the clergy had increased from fourteen to twenty-six, seven of whom occupied self-supporting parishes, the others deriving their stipends from local contributions, grants from English Societies, and the offerings of the Canadian Church through the general Mission Board. Twenty-three churches have also been built during this period, the entire indebtedness on which would not amount to more than $1000.
" Over and above the poverty of the people," writes the Bishop, " one of our greatest difficulties lies in the profound ignorance of the majority of our people on all questions of Church history and teaching. They know next to nothing of the Church's distinc- tive doctrines, and hence lie easily open to the inducements offered by other communions to cast in their lot with them. The Church in England is largely responsible for this, in leaving her children so unable to give a reason for the faith that is in them."
The organization of the Diocese is very simple ; there is as yet no Synod, its place being taken by a triennial council, composed of the Bishop and Clergy. The Diocese is divided into four rural deaneries,
Q
242 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN
and also into two convocations, separated by the French River, thus enabling the clergy to meet frequently between triennial councils. The Bishop says — -" One of our greatest helps is the Algoma Missionary News, published monthly, and devoted entirely to the diffusion of information as to work being done in the Diocese." One of the most im- portant of these is the work carried on by the Rev. F. Wilson in his Indian homes. There are two such, one for boys and one for girls, at the Sault ; others have lately been established at two points in the North-west. The work is not easy, because of the wandering habits and unstable character of the Indians. Mr. Wilson finds it hard to keep uplthe interest of Church people in the older Dioceses, and to obtain the necessary funds for carrying on his work ; but through the coldness and discouragement of years, he hopes and perseveres, and has been instrumental in erecting very substantial and com- modious institutions for the permanent work of the Church.
The Bishop reports that during his episcopate the endowment to provide a permanent stipend for the Bishop has grown from nothing to 35,000 dollars. A Widows' and Orphans' Endowment has also been created, amounting to 13,000 dollars. They have also a Church and Parsonage Fund, which has greatly con- tributed to the extension and establishment of the work in the Diocese. A superannuation fund for infirm or disabled clergymen is a crying necessity. Common humanity forbids the cruelty of turning adrift without the means of support a labourer who has spent his best years, as well as his mental and physical powers, in the service of the Church.
Upon the Canadian Church the Diocese of Algoma has, and must continue to have, paramount claims. It was set apart as a separate Diocese by the Pro-
EASTERN CANADA AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 243
vincial Synod, representing the whole Canadian Church to be her first and special field of missionary- operation. No doubt the great North- west presents a more inviting field. The progress will be far more rapid, the results more apparent, but we have pledged our faith to Algoma, and must set ourselves to pro- vide for her needs first. The Diocese has no doubt great and permanent claims upon the liberality of the Church at home ; most of its inhabitants have come directly from England, and not from the older Dioceses of Canada, as is the case in the North-west. Then too, as the vast mineral resources of this region are more and more developed, the population that will be gathered there for the working of the mines will come almost wholly from the old lands. For them the Church at home is bound in duty to make initial provision. It will not, however, be long till aggregated populations of this kind are able to establish self-sustaining parishes.
Then there are small villages on the islands and at the mouths of rivers which are never likely to become large enough to provide for their own needs, and which are yet too far separated from other similar settlements to be formed into one parish. In the neighbourhood of most of these villages good land may yet be obtained for a very small sum. It would manifestly be a wise thing to make special efforts to secure for many of these places one or two hundred acres of land as an endowment. This could be stock-farmed, or cultivated with the aid of a man, by a country parson, whose duties from the nature of the case cannot be very extensive. This would tend to give stability to the work and secure for all time the pastoral care of the Church over these scattered and feeble flocks. There are not a few men in the older Dioceses who at mid-life would be glad of some such quiet retreat for the rest of their time.
244 HISTOEY OF THE CHURCH IN
There are many men both in England and in Canada who could easily provide one such endowment, and so extend their beneficence through all generations to come. For the rest of the people scattered widely over this large Diocese engaged in lumbering, fishing, and widely-separated farming, the Church at large will in the main have to provide.
One great difficulty the Bishop experiences, is to get good and efficient men for these scattered parishes and widely-extended missions, and a greater difficulty still is to keep them when he has got them. They and he alike deserve the sympathy, the admiration, the prayers, and the help of the whole Church, and especially of the Church in Canada.
EASTERN CANADA AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 245
CHAPTER XI.
DIOCESE OP NIAGARA.
In 1874 it was determined by the Synod of Toronto to form another Diocese out of the six western counties of the remaining Diocese of Toronto. A committee was appointed to make all necessary arrangements as to Episcopal endowment. This being clone to the satisfaction of the House of Bishops, they formally set apart the new Diocese on the 12th February, 1875. At the Episcopal election held in Christ Church school-house, Hamilton, on March 1 7th of the same year, the Rev. Thomas Brock Fuller, D.D., D.C.L., was chosen first Bishop. He was consecrated by the Metropolitan of Canada on May 1st, the Festival of St. Philip and St. James, 1875. Bishop Fuller was over sixty -five years of age when elected ; he was moreover suffering from an incurable bodily infirmity ; but with surprising energy and diligence he devoted himself to the work of the Episcopate, and to the very close of his life administered the Diocese with great energy, wisdom, and fairness. Bishop Fuller was of Irish origin, being descended on his mother's side from Archbishop Loft us, one of the founders of Trinity College, Dublin, while on his father's side he was a lineal descendant of the Church historian, " Worthy Master Fuller," as he was styled in his clay. He was born in the garrison at Kingston, Ontario, where his
246 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN
father, Major Fuller of the 41st Regiment, was quartered. The gallant Sir Isaac Brock, after whom he was named, was his godfather.
"Mr. Fuller was educated at the best schools then in the country, including that of Dr. Strachan's at Little York. His special preparation for the ministry was made at the Divinity School at Chamblay, L. C. He was admitted to the Diaconate by Bishop Stewart in 1833, and appointed to the curacy of the Church in Montreal. He therefore began his ministerial life in the midst of that terrible scourge of cholera of which we have spoken before. For many weeks he was employed amid the fearful scenes of the city pest- houses in visiting the sick, consoling the dying, and burying the dead in their hurriedly-made graves. It was a baptism of fire, a terrible initiation into the most heart-searching duties of the ministry" (Arch- deacon Dixon).
From Montreal he was removed, on his ordination to the priesthood, to the mission of Chatham, on the extreme west of Ontario. Here he laboured alone for four years, supplying as best he could the minis- trations of the Church throughout the counties of Lambton and Kent. At this period the Church throughout Canada was exceedingly weak. There were only forty clergymen in the whole of Upper Canada. These, for the most part, were widely scattered over the whole country ; they only knew of each other's existence by printed reports, and had very little personal intercourse. They were without com- bination among themselves, without any plan of operation, and practically without Episcopal super- vision. From the Ottawa to Lake Huron there were only three missionaries, where there was abundant occupation for a hundred at least. In the Newcastle district, in which during a single year 8000 English emigrants had settled, there was only one clergyman,
EASTERN CANADA AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 247
settled at Peterborough, and he had the instinct of an old-fashioned English parish priest, rather than of the backwoods pioneer missionary. One cannot help feeling, in looking back at those opening days of our history, that our entanglements with the State, and dependence upon the Crown for the appointment of Bishops, has wrought us great and irreparable mischief. Had half a dozen of the best missionaries of that time been consecrated Bishops, even on the salaries they had, and had they ordained the best men they could find in each settlement — the men who afterwards be- came Methodist preachers, such men as the apostles of old must have " ordained elders in every city," — the state of the Church and the prospects of religion in the land would have been very different from what they are to-day.
Bishop Fuller, it is claimed, was the real originator of the Colonial Diocesan Constitution. As early as 1836 he published a pamphlet on The State and Prospects of the Church in Canada, in which he displays a broad and -comprehensive grasp of the whole situation. He saw clearly the calamities, as they were then regarded, that were impending, and which before long actually befell the Canadian Church. The loss of the Government grant of £3000 a year. The confiscation of the clergy reserves, and the secularization of King's College, the Church University. The remedy which he suggested for these perils was the formation of Diocesan Synods, in which he says — "We may be enabled, together with lay delegates from our parishes, frequently to meet in general council. Nothing less than the adoption of a code of laws embraced in a new constitution can bring order and regularity to our Church ; nothiog short of the admission of the laity into our Councils will give us strength and energy." Bishop Fuller then was the first clergyman in Canada who openly
248 HISTORY OP THE CHURCH IN
advocated Synodical action on the lines finally adopted. Bishop Strachan shortly afterwards sub- mitted to the Church a somewhat more developed scheme, but on the same lines, aod he never ceased to advocate it, till in 1853 he presided over the first Colonial Synod of the English Church ever held. But whether Bishop Strachan merely adopted and unfolded the scheme of Mr. Fuller, with which he must have been familiar, or evolved one out of his own mind, does not appear. Both the one and the other was no doubt suggested by the constitution of the Church in the United States, of which, after all, it is merely an adapted receipt.
In 1840 Mr. Fuller was appointed Rector of Tho- rold, and established congregations at several places on the Welland Canal. During his twenty-one years' residence in that parish, he erected the present beautiful stone church, and shortly after his removal from it he cancelled a debt of 11,000 dollars, due for money which he had advanced towards the erection of the church. He was appointed Rector of St. George's Church, Toronto, in 1861. The congregation was in great financial embarrassment at the time, from which Dr. Fuller's administrative ability succeeded in relieving it before long. In 1869 he was appointed Archdeacon of Niagara by Bishop Strachan, and in 1875, as has been narrated, was elected Bishop of Niagara, over which he presided wisely and well till his death on the 17th December, 1884. In the words of one of the obituary notices — " The lesson of the life just ended is full of example worthy of emulation. It has been a life of unceasing work and constant striving for noble ends and high attainments." Bishop Fuller was most conscientiously and sincerely attached to the Church, her doctrine and her discipline. He was ever against extremes on the one side or the other, and by his conciliating counsel he often allayed
EASTERN CANADA AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 249
rising difficulties of this kind. Bishop Fuller was married at an early age to Miss Street, who in addition to being, in gentleness, goodness, and wisdom, the very ideal of a parson's wife, brought him a large fortune, so that he was quite able to live without his clerical income in abundant comfort, but he never in the least relaxed his energy and toil in the Master's service.
BISHOP HAMILTON.
At a meeting of the Synod held in the School-house of Christ Church Cathedral, Hamilton, on the 27th of January, 1885, the Rev. Charles Hamilton, D.D., Rector of St. Matthew's Church, Quebec, and for some time Prolocutor of the Provincial Synod of Canada, Avas chosen to fill the vacant See. He was consecrated at Fredericton by the Metropolitan of Canada, assisted by the Bishops of Nova Scotia, Quebec, Maine, Toronto, and the coadjutor of Fredericton, on the 1st May of the same year, and at once entered upon1 his duties.
Bishop Hamilton is a Canadian by birth, but is, like his predecessor, of Irish extraction. He was educated at University College, Oxford, and gradu- ated in that University in the year 1856. He was ordained both Deacon and Priest by Bishop George J. Mountain, and soon proved himself to be a diligent, wise, and successful parish priest. He is a man of dignified and winning manners, humble - minded, devout and energetic. He is credited with unusual practical judgment, and certainly is filled with fervent zeal for the advancement of the Kingdom of Christ.
The Diocese, though lately constituted, is not new territory, and is not therefore likely to expand with the rapidity of Huron and Ontario. Its growth can
250 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN
only be by subdivision of existing parishes and missions, and by occupying territory that was long neglected. Growth under such circumstances will necessarily be slow, as the neglected territory has long since been occupied by more than one of the denominations, and generally all the more religiously disposed and earnest souls have been gathered into one or other of these, only the careless ones, for the most part, being left as even nominal adherents of the Church of England.
"When the Diocese was constituted there were forty- six parishes and fifty-one licensed clergymen within its bounds ; since then fourteen new parishes have been constituted, and the clerical staff has been increased by seventeen. During this period twenty-five new churches have been built, many of which were con- secrated at the time of opening, while many others have been enlarged and improved. There are now over forty parsonages, many of which have been built since the establishment of the Diocese. Hamil- ton, the See city of the Diocese, has manifested a great revival of Church life and activity. This life has shown itself in the establishment of five new parishes and four new churches. The Church throughout the Diocese has increased at least proportionately in strength. In 1875 there were only twenty parishes in the Diocese which did not look to the Mission Fund for assistance, now there are forty-two, and twenty-five new stations have been opened for public worship. Over 18,000 persons have been received into the Church by baptism, among whom were many adults, and a large number of these had been brought up outside the Church. About 12,000 persons have been confirmed ; the average number for the last four years had been about 1000, a great increase upon the earlier years of Diocesan life. And it is worthy of note, that at least twenty-five per cent, of those
EASTERN CANADA AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 251
confirmed were converts from the various denomina- tions. It is also estimated that the number of com- municants has more than doubled during the sixteen years of separate Diocesan life.
The Church's ministrations are being gradually and steadily extended into the hitherto neglected places of the Diocese. The interest in missionary -work and the contributions for the support of the same are steadily increasing, while the sums annually raised for the maintenance of the clergy, the erection of new churches, parsonages, and other Church objects, are year by year becoming larger. In addition to these outward manifestations of revived life, there are other tokens of progress which are more reliable and more gratifying. There are larger congregations, more frequent and more reverent attendance at Holy Communion, larger numbers and more carefully pre- pared candidates for confirmation, and as a con- sequence a more intelligent and instructed Church- manship spreading throughout the Diocese. It is probable that if the clerical staff could be increased by twenty-five or thirty additional members, the Diocese would be fairly well supplied, and the minis- trations of the Church brought within reasonable reach of all the inhabitants. It is not too much to expect that, under the earnest and energetic adminis- tration of the present Bishop this result may be attained, and steady progress, and at least a gradual recovery of those who through neglect have left the fold, may be looked for.
THE CLERGY.
One of the most prominent clergymen who laboured in the district now constituting the Diocese of Niagara was the Eev. Robert Addison, who laid the
252 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN
foundation of the Church there. He was a graduate of Trinity College, Cambridge, and displayed such marked ability, both in the classical and mathe- matical departments, that his seniors formed great expectations of his future career. Shortly after his ordination he applied for work in the Colonial Church, and was appointed, in 1791, to the mission of Niagara. His whole income was less than £100 a year, while his duties were of the most severe and exhausting kind. "My mission," he says, "is very laborious. I must either neglect my duty or make a circuit several times in the year of more than 150 miles." The congregation that be seems to have visited with the most satisfaction was that of the Mohawks on the Grand River. In 1812 Niagara was captured by the invading American army, and most of the principal inhabitants were sent hundreds of miles into the interior of the United States as prisoners of war. Mi\ Addison was allowed to remain on parole in his own house. In the following year the town, with the church, was burnt down, and Mr. Addison says it is impossible for him to describe the horrid scenes he witnessed. He had himself been plundered, made prisoner of war, and harassed until ne was dangerously ill. When in 1814 the Americans were driven out of the country, he resumed his regular mission work, which had been thus inter- rupted. His baptisms among the Indians now amounted to about 100 every year. After having ministered to the congregation in Niagara for nearly forty years, he died in 1829, in his seventy-fifth year, beloved and regretted by all. Bishop Strachan says of him — •
" He was a gentleman of commanding talents and exquisite wit, whose devoted ness to his sacred duties, kindness of manner, and sweet companionship, are still sources of grateful and fond i-emembrance. In
EASTERN CANADA AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 253
every township we find traces of his ministrations and endearing recollections of his affectionate visits."
Another prominent figure was the present Dean of Niagara, the Very Rev. J. Gamble Geddes, ordained in 1834. His whole clerical life was spent in Hamilton, to which he was sent as a missionary when it was only a small village. He was a man of highly- cultured mind, of dignified and refined manners, a gentleman of the old school, of earnest faith and of devout life ; a thoroughly convinced, reverent, and devout High Churchman of the Anglican type.
His life was distinguished by methodical, earnest, persevering work. He was elected Prolocutor of the Provincial Synod for the session held in 1873, and Dean of Christ Church Cathedral, Hamilton, of which he had long been rector, on the consecration of Bishop Fuller. Dean Geddes is now living in retire- ment, after a ministry extending over fifty-nine years, and is held in reverent and loving regard by all who know him.
"With the Dean has been associated in neighbourhood and work the Venerable Archdeacon McMurray, the school companion and life -long friend of Bishop Fuller. Dr. McMurray, born in Ireland, came to Canada when a child. He was one of the pupils of Bishop Strachan's famous school. On his ordination at the age of twenty-three, he was appointed by Sir John Colborne, then Lieut.-Governor of Upper Canada, to establish mission posts among the Indians on the north shores of Lake Huron, with head-quarters at Sault Ste. Marie. He continued for six years ministering in the lone wilderness to these children of the forest, scattered along the shores of the two lakes. He was then removed to the Bectory at Ancaster and Dundas, where he remained till he was transferred to his present charge, the Rectory of Niagara. Dr. McMurray is a man of dignified and
254 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN
winsome manners. At the founding of Trinity College he was sent to the United States to solicit assistance. In a short time he returned with 10,000 dollars, as an expression of the sympathy of the Churchmen of the Republic for their brethren in Canada. He was employed by Bishop Strachan to look after the interests of the Church in 1854, when the secularization of the Reserves was in progress. The commutation scheme, devised by the Hon. John Hilliard Cameron, was in danger of being rejected by the Upper House, and it was largely due to Dr. McMurray's diplomatic influence that it was finally adopted, and that vexed question for ever settled. In 1864 he was selected to visit England in behalf of Trinity College. It is safe to say that no Canadian clergyman ever so favourably impressed the English people as did Dr. McMurray. Everywhere his dignified manners and genial courtesy won for him devoted friends. After twelve months he returned with a large addition to the endowment fund of Trinity College. Dr. McMurray has throughout his long life been a patient, persevering parish priest, and now in his declining years he enjoys the respect and affection of all who know him.
The Rev. Dr. Atkinson, for a long time Rector of St. Catherine's, was the contemporary and friend of these pioneers. He was a patient, loving man, who, though disabled by an injury received early in life, so that he was unable to walk or to stand in the pulpit, yet held a large and intelligent congregation together by his eloquent preaching and personal attractiveness. He was succeeded by the Rev. Henry Holland, a devout, gentle, humble-minded, earnest man, who had done noble pioneer missionary work in his earlier days.
Dr. Read, the present Rector of Grimsby, was also distinguished for long years of missionary toil. The
EASTERN CANADA AND NEWFOUNDLAND. 255
Diocese of Toronto owes its episcopal endowment to his persevering efforts.
The Rev. B. C. Hill, for long years missionary on the Grand River, was another of the Church's laborious pioneers. He used to walk forty miles, and hold five services on the Sunday. He was a great classical scholar, could read the Greek and Latin authors as readily as the English. He was a peculiar man, and used to be betrayed in his fervour into giving his backwoods hearers a taste of Latin and Greek. He was a most assiduous worker, holding services constantly during the week-days, in school- houses, or the homes of the people. He was a pronounced Evangelical, and as such he devoted himself to preaching the Gospel as he understood it, without taking much trouble to instruct his people in the distinctive principles of the Church of England. The result is, that of his abundant labours very little fruit has been gathered by the Church in which he toiled.
The two Leemings, Ralph and "William, were modest, retiring men ; not much was heard of them in the public life of the Church. They had, however, both seen hard pioneer work. Ralph for many years devoted himself to missionary work among the Indians.
The Rev. Arthur, afterwards Archdeacon Palmer, was a prominent figure in the Church during the whole Episcopate of Bishops Strachan and Bethune. He was an Irishman by birth, a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin, a man of splendid physique and majestic bearing. He settled in the backwoods, where the City of Guelph now stands, and so he saw a great deal of hard backwoods mission life during the earlier years of his ministry. He was an in- fluential man in all the public concerns of the Church.
256 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN EASTERN CANADA.
Of the younger men it would be invidious to speak individually. The story of their lives is not yet told. As a body they are earnest, loyal, devout men, who are quietly and diligently doing their Master's work to the best of their judgment and ability. Their history will be written when their work is ended, and so the curtain falls upon the toils and hopes of this the youngest of our Ontario Dioceses.
THE END.
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